Hello. First off: I am terribly sorry about the very long wait for this chapter. My reasons happen to be the following: school started, and this chapter is about 33 pages single spaced. Therefore, I suggest that it be read in maybe more than one sitting if you're in a time crunch. This is most of ESB, excluding the very end of the movie, but I ended up using some of the real dialogue because some of it's, well, too good not to mention (ex. Han telling that one dude "Then I'll see you in hell!" and certain others). I wasn't sure how people would react to that, so I just wanted to warn people of that in advance. I changed as much as I thought possible with the scenes which happened similarly in my story and the movie. Lots of Rebellion stuff happening this chapter, and I'll be back with the Empire next chapter with Shadows (hopefully I'll try to get that chapter out sooner than later). Oh, and a final warning: there is way too much from Luke's POV in this chapter (hence the planned binge with the Imps). Anyway, thanks to all reviewers, watchers, people who have this on their favorites lists, and, of course, all the readers. I really appreciate it all, and I sincerely hope you enjoy this chapter.

Leia hated Hoth. Absolutely hated it. The planet hadn't been better staying there the second, and more permanent, time around. It had been about three months since they had set up base, but she still hated it. Most of the Rebellion hated it too. It was hard not to hate Hoth. If her father was there, he would have hated it, too. Given his record with desert planets, it would be strange if he didn't. After all, Hoth was just a frozen desert with lots of ice. Her mother would probably just learn to live with the planet, but Leia, if anything, had inherited her father's dislike of extreme environments.

She had been doing reconnaissance work on a dare from the Rogues (Damn them!), and was now heading back to base. There had been some important conversation over the comm, and something big was happening back at base, according to Janson's descriptions of the events of the day. Janson had been very vague, which was no surprise, but Leia had a strange feeling about who had come on planet. Maybe it was a small inkling of the Force? Leia smiled to herself. If that was it, then it was probably one of her parents. Leia's eyes widened as she realized that if it was one of her parents, then she couldn't stop hiding her identity from her friends. She hated doing that in the first place, but there was no doubt that she would get some sort of adverse reaction from at least one of them.

While riding her tauntaun through the hangar, a ship took off and left. Leia could feel a somewhat familiar presence on board, but she couldn't place it. Maybe if she had listened to her father more about using the Force, then she would have been able to identify the person. Speeding through the hangar and dodging people that got in the way of the tauntaun, Leia got to the area where the ship had come from in record time. She dismounted in one swift movement and surveyed the area. Han was standing there, leaning against the wall, and near him were Bail and her mother. This is a disaster! Leia thought, but she continued to walk towards the two diplomats.

When she arrived, Leia put on as big of a smile as she could. She imagined it made her seem quite funny looking since she had borrowed Han's coat to go do the recon. It was way too large for her, and the fur rim around the hood must have looked ridiculous. "Hello Senators," she said. "I'm glad to see that you are all right, Senator Amidala." Leia hoped that her mother would get the message that she hadn't told her friends about her parents.

Padmé smiled back at her daughter. "I'm glad to see that you're all right, Leia. Your father has been worried sick, I'll have you know. He constantly was annoying your mother about his deranged fantasy situations that you had gotten yourself into."

Leia breathed a sigh of relief. "I wish I could apologize to her and tell her that if I could have avoided what I had planned to do, I would have, but it just seemed to have been fate that I linked my fate with that of the Alliance. I also feel badly for abandoning my post in the Senate," she admitted. "I know I did the right thing, but I still have the feeling that I did not."

Bail decided to leave and let them talk alone, but Han took that as a cue to start walking over. Leia wanted him to shove off and go pester the Rogues, but she knew that he was going to do no such thing. He probably even knew that Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo was her mother. Hopefully he hadn't connected the fact that that would make Anakin Skywalker her father. Solo put on his cocky grin. Leia knew something bad was going to happen. "Hey, Your Highness, the Rogues have some news for you: Janson accidentally defrosted your quarters again. Have fun with your clothe-sicles."

Leia glared at Solo as he walked away. "That man is infuriating!" she exclaimed, all diplomacy discarded. "If it's not one thing, it's another!" She groaned. "Sometimes I wonder if he goes out of his way to trample all over my nerves!" Han had passed out of sight, but Leia was still glaring at the spot he had occupied before rounding the corner.

Padmé chuckled. "So that was Captain Solo? Sola was very enlightening about your little trip to Naboo a while back. She said that there might possibly have been someone in particular that you liked, but I didn't think that he'd be so handsome."

Leia had a look of absolute horror on her face. "Aunt Sola swore she wouldn't say anything to you or Dad! And I don't like Han Solo!" she shouted. After a few seconds of calm breathing, Leia realized that she had make quite the scene, but most of the Rebels had shrugged it off as yet another spat between her and Han, despite the topic. "Sorry, Mom," Leia said quietly and apologetically. "I just... You haven't told Dad, have you?"

Padmé shook her head. "Of course not. You know how well he would be taking that particular conversation. I know that certain topics that even stray close to that would be just cause for him to simply overload and shut down. There was this one time that he fainted; it was hysterical." She smiled. "So, how have you been? Made many friends?"

Leia nodded. "Yes. I have. Many more that I thought I would, too. Most, if not all, are completely insane though. Luke is one of the exceptions. He's a lot more solemn than the rest, but that doesn't mean he can't act as crazy as them, either. Luke reminds me a lot of Dad, to tell you the truth, but without the explosive temper Dad's known for."

Padmé's happy expression faltered for a moment. Leia thought that she looked a little sad, but it quickly passed as if Padmé hadn't changed expressions at all. "I see. What about the rest of your friends? I've heard that Corran and his friend Kyle were here, too."

Leia nodded. "Yeah. Corran's sarcasm is infectious sometimes, but Kyle's part of the commandoes, so I don't see him as often. I generally hang out with Rogue Squadron. Both Luke and Corran are part of it. Some of the others I know very well are Tycho, Hobbie, Wedge, and Wes. Tycho's the squad's voice of reason, Hobbie's the resident disaster prone pilot of the squad, Wedge is second-in-command of the squad, and Wes is the squad's prankster. Luke actually is the leader of the squadron, and I guess you probably already know, Mom, but he destroyed the Death Star." Leia paused. "Um, and then there's Han. He's the captain of the Millennium Falcon, and a really good friend of mine and Luke's. He's the one that I hired to take Luke and I to Yavin 4 in the first place."

"It sounds like you feel more conformable here than you ever did on Coruscant," Padmécommented. "Back on there, your father and I had to try so hard to get you to try and make friends, but here, you made at least five almost immediately from the sound of things." Padmé sighed. "Unfortunately, Leia, I should be getting to the meeting with Bail and the others. I do need to meet all of the military leaders. I will talk to you later, all right?"

"Okay, Mom. I'll see you later!" Leia replied. As they started to part, Leia suddenly remembered that she needed to tell her mother about how she hadn't exactly told anyone who she was, so she ran back over to Padmé. "Mom, I forgot to tell you... I haven't told Luke or any of the other guys that I'm, well, you know, related to you or Dad."

"And you don't want me telling them, either?" Padmé finished. "Don't worry, Leia. I won't spill the beans. They wouldn't think any less of you, you know. From the sound of them, I doubt their perception of you would change at all. It would be a good idea to tell them eventually, though, but it's okay to take your time." Padmé smiled. "Now go off. I don't want to keep you from your friends, and it sounds like you need to defrost your clothes."

Leia remembered Han's announcement to her and nodded. "I'll see you later, Mom." Padmé nodded, and Leia rushed off in the direction that Han had disappeared in. She didn't need to travel far; the room that the Rogues frequented most was near that hangar: the mess hall. The twelve pilots that made up the infamous squadron were sitting at a table near the exit to the hangar, and apparently Solo had decided to grace them with his presence. Chewie had come along, too. He was currently conversing with Inyri Forge and Dack about malfunctions with hyperdrives on freighters. How they had managed to get him on that topic, Leia wasn't sure she wanted to know. She actually had a bad feeling about a certain freighter having a hyperdrive malfunction in the future, though.

Leia walked over and sat down at the table next to Luke. He smiled at her. "So, what was going on just now? Han was saying that some Imperial assassin came. Do you know anything about it or did you just get back from the recon thing?" Luke asked.

Leia grinned. "Nothing much. I came back just as the Imperial left. However, she had freed Senator Amidala and brought her back here to the base. I don't know why." Leia paused. "Actually, Han was there, too. Seemed to have been there the entire time. Why don't we ask him what happened?" She smirked and looked at Han.

Han rolled his eyes. "Fine. Look, the girl brought the Senator back for some reason or another; she didn't tell me about that. All she did was tell me about why she was supposed to be here and to warn the person she was supposed to have killed/abducted."

Corran's eyes widened. "Wait a second. Did she give her name at all? 'Cause---"

Han shook his head. "No, Corran, she didn't. She actually told me to not tell anyone she was ever here, but I think that was because she thought I recognized her." He shrugged. "Anyway, Your Highnessness, how's the Senator? Not too rattled, is she?"

"Wait... Are we talking about Senator Padmé Amidala?" Corran asked, and Leia realized that at least one of her friends knew that her mother was married to her father. "As in the Senator from Naboo who's married to the guy that taught me, Anakin Skywalker?"

Leia, giving up but not letting it show, nodded. "One and the same. She's been part of the Alliance for a while now. It's been about a year, year and a half now."

"And this is the benefit of having a friend in the High Command: they tell you stuff," Wes declared. "Of course, the rest of the time, it's a pain since you always try to keep us from breaking the rules. Unsuccessfully, I might add."

"There's always a good reason for it, Wes," Tycho pointed out. "Like how while it was fun to have that camp fire, not only did it attract wild animals, but it melted some of the ice in the ceiling of the hangar. Didn't we get mess hall duty for a week for that?"

"Three weeks," Wedge corrected. "And today's the first day, if you remember."

"You guys did that weeks ago!" Han exclaimed. "Why was it scheduled for today?"

Luke stifled a laugh, and Leia answered in a deadpan, "Because you and Yellow Squadron were supposed to have been on mess hall duty until today."

"Well I'm sorry, Your Worshipfulness, but it just doesn't seem to matter," Han shot back. "We eat rations, and the floor is ice, so why clean up at all? Whatever isn't eaten just freezes to the floor. Then you have to take an ice pick or jackhammer to the floor."

"It's simply too much work," Wes agreed. "And then you have a pothole in the floor."

"And potholes are dangerous," Hobbie added. "You could trip in one, you could trip over one, you could trip into one... The list goes on. If we wanted to fill the pothole, though, we could add water to it, but it would have to be a little bit at a time and ice cold water. The water would require that we heat up some ice, but wouldn't you rather drink hot drinks than have it used as pothole filler? I wouldn't trade coffee for that! And it's a waste of heat!"

"Point taken," Leia grumbled. "Rogue Squadron: three hundred something, Leia: zero. Can't you ever not argue yourselves out of a punishment?"

"It's sorta hard with Jedi Masters," Corran admitted. "They know when you're lying."

"That reminds me of that one time when we were pulled over," Tycho commented. "Mr. Skywalker didn't look too happy when he had to bail us out of the whole mess."

Corran shrugged. "He wasn't that angry once we told him that there was something wrong with the speeder." He winced in remembrance of the next part. "Of course, once I mentioned it was his speeder, he got a little mad. I wasn't allowed to read fiction for a week."

"A week?" Han said disbelievingly. "You crash a speeder and you get punished by not being allowed to read for a week? I know I've asked this before, but how the heck does that guy teach discipline? Seriously! You weren't even grounded?"

"No, Corran wasn't," Luke complained. "I was. Why? I was driving. It didn't matter that he and Wes were distracting me. But I do have to admit that the whole thing blew over eventually when Master Skywalker got a ticket for the exact same thing a week later."

"Isn't that called poetic justice?" Wes wondered. "It's either that or karma."

Leia laughed. "No, it's called chronic bad driving. He drives like a lunatic. Trust me." She paused. "Actually, don't trust me, ask Senator Amidala. She can testify to that, too."

"Remind me not of his driving," Corran implored, looking a little green. "It brings back bad memories of missions where he flew ships like a mynock out of hell. And there was this one time when the freaking inertial dampeners broke!"

"It was only out for two minutes, Corran," Luke reminded him. "Master Skywalker got it fixed really quickly. You and Master Obi-Wan were clinging to your seats for dear life."

"Yeah, well that's because you were the one that was flying the ship when Anakin went back to fix it!" Corran exclaimed. "Of course we would have been a little scared!"

"Then why the hell are you a fighter pilot?" Han wondered. "I mean, if you hate flying that much, then why not be part of the ground forces or something like that?"

"I'm fine with it when I'm the pilot," Corran replied cooly. "Because, then I'm not trying to do a slingshot maneuver around a blue giant, and I care if something malfunctions."

"How the heck did we get onto this topic?" Wedge asked. "It's starting to get repetitive. Weren't we talking about Senator Amidala and that Imperial assassin?"

"Yeah, we were," Luke said. "Hey, Han. Who was the assassin supposed to kill?"

Han took a drink from the Corellian ale he had smuggled into the mess hall before answering. Quite frankly, from Han's point of view, he needed it to answer. "Simple. You."

"What!" Leia blurted out. "She was supposed to kill Luke? Why? Well, besides the fact that he destroyed the Death Star," she amended. "The Imperials don't know who did that, so how could they have sent an assassin to kill him?"

Han shrugged. "I don't think the Imperials do know. Maybe some of them do, but from the way the girl was acting, she was under orders from someone who knew what is actually going on. After all, Janson, didn't you say that she didn't tell the other Imps?"

Wes thought back. "Yeah. She said she hadn't told any of her superiors about the location of the base. It didn't strike me as strange then, but it does now. How would she have known about the location in the first place unless one of her superiors told her?"

"Then let's just hope they hate their superiors enough not to tell about this place," Han replied. "I'm not exactly ecstatic about the impending battle between us and them for Hoth. I don't particularly feel like possibly dying to defend this ball of ice."

Han couldn't believe his luck. Not only had the High Command decided to dole out new punishments to the Rogues for the bonfire incident, but Han had been reassigned to scouting duty as well. It wasn't the cold that really bothered him. No, the cold was somewhat bearable once you got over the fact that it wasn't really all that much warmer inside the base. What really bothered him was how badly the tauntauns smelled. Somehow, the cold made the stink even worse. Fortunately, his shift was practically over. He switched on his comlink. "Echo Three, this is Echo Seven. Hey, Luke? I've set the markers and am heading back to base. You coming, or are there actually life readings on this rock?"

Over the comlink, Han could hear Luke laugh. "No. I'll be back a while after you. I'm going to go check out a meteorite that hit around here. It's not going to take long."

"Okay, Kid," Han replied. "If you want to stay out in the cold, it's your choice, but just in case there's an accident, what're your current coordinates? 'Cause there's no way in hell, frozen or burning, that I'm going to chance the wrath of Leia if you get lost."

"Right, Han. We've done this a million times. What's the chance that something bad would happen?" Luke asked. Han decided not to answer the question, and Luke gave his coordinates after a few seconds. "I'll be back about fifteen minutes, tops, after you."

"Okay, Kid. See you then," Han said, ending the conversation, and started to head back to base. Soon he would be free of the tauntaun for the week, maybe even the rest of the time the Rebellion would be staying on Hoth. The speeders were being defrosted! Han guided his tauntaun into the base and slowed it down to a stop outside of the Falcon. Chewie was working on the ship again. It was good that he was, too. Some bad dealings were going down on Nar Shaddaa between his old smuggler friends and the Imperials. Han felt like he at least owed it to them to warn them about how they would get double crossed by the Imps. He'd been one of the first to hear the horror stories; most of the stories had been told to him by the swindled freighter pilots themselves. "Hey, Chewie, I'll be right back to help you work on---What is that?---Don't tell me that there are some problems with the hyperdrive again. Anyway, I'll be right back. I'm, going to report in."

Chewie growled an amused reply that no, there wasn't anything wrong with the hyperdrive, and that he'd probably be working inside the Falcon by the time Han returned.

Han grinned and walked off toward the command center. There were all sorts of charts and machines filling the room, but Han knew exactly the shortest distance to travel to get to General Rieekan through the chaos. When he arrived at his destination, Han saluted the General and gave his report. "General, there aren't any life signs out there, as usual, but I managed to set up the remainder of the perimeter markers, so we should know if anything does live on this iceball should they choose to show themselves."

"Good. But where's Commander Skywalker? Weren't you working with him?" Rieekan inquired. "I was under the impression that he should have been back before you."

Han shrugged and responded, "He wanted to check out a meteorite that hit nearby. Luke said he'd be back in about fifteen minutes after I returned." Pausing, Han glanced at the radar screen the General had been studying. "But it seems as if all of the asteroid and meteors are going to make it pretty difficult to locate incoming ships."

Rieekan nodded. "Yes. It is." There was a moment of silence between the two. "When are you planning to leave for the Smuggler's Moon? The High Command needs to find a suitable replacement for you while you and Chewbacca take your leave. You're good in a fight, Solo. The Rebellion would loathe to lose you. How long will this mission take?"

"I'm not sure," Han replied, grimacing. "If my old friends believe me, then it might only take a day or two on-planet and in addition to travel time. If not... I'm not sure."

Rieekan nodded in understanding and turned back to his work, noting that Princess Leia was stomping toward Solo. Apparently Solo hadn't told her about the mission yet.

Han turned around and almost ran straight into Leia. He wondered vaguely whether she had heard the conversation or not. Judging by the look on her face, Han could only assume it was that or she had discovered her clothes had been turned into clothe-sicles again. Deciding it was the former, Han said, "I guess this is it, Your Highness."

Still glaring at him and choosing to ignore how the rest of the command center was avidly watching the whole situation, Leia replied indifferently, "That's right."

"Well, don't go all mushy on me," Han retorted and started to leave. "So long, Princess!" he called to her bitterly when he was at the door and stormed out into the hallway. It was pretty much deserted, so Han probably wasn't going to be running into anyone else he knew on the way back to the Falcon. Good. Less goodbyes meant less pain. He heard footfalls coming after him, and as Han turned around, Leia called out his name. Han sighed in exasperation. Apparently he was going to be held up. "Yes, Your Highnessness?"

"I thought you were staying!" Leia exclaimed with her voice laden with some emotion Han was having trouble identifying. Or trying not to identify.

"Yeah, well, remember Ord Mantell? That sort of changed my mind a bit."

"Have you told Luke about this?" Leia demanded, sounding quite furious with him now. She just had to push all Han's buttons, didn't she? Not that it didn't go the other way.

Han grimaced. "No. I haven't. That was what I was on my way to do," he lied. The last time Han had tried to leave, Luke had cornered him and talked him into staying. That was shortly before Leia had done the same thing. He didn't want either to do that again.

Leia decided to give one last ditch effort. "Han! We---the Rebellion still needs you."

Han stared at her, not believing what she was saying. "The Rebellion still needs me? Are you really all that selfless? What about you and your needs?"

Leia visibly bristled and turned away. "I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Oh, come off it, Princess," Han retorted. "You want me to stay because of the way you feel about me." Han almost regretted saying that. Almost.

Leia nodded. "Yes. Of course. You're a great help to us---all of us. Not just me. As proven in many battles, you're a natural leader---"

Rolling his eyes, Han cut her off. "No. You know that's not what I'm talking about."

Leia registered what he said and blinked before her eyes widened in realization. "You don't think---Why you arrogant---You're imagining things, Solo!"

Han laughed at her. "You know I'm right. I think you were afraid I was going to leave without giving you a goodbye kiss," Han shot back at her. Now he was in for it.

Glaring at him yet again, Leia was shaking with anger. "I'd sooner kiss a Wookie!"

That was the comment that finally set Han off. "I could arrange that!" he yelled at her. "You could use a good kiss!" he finished before storming off into the hangar while Leia stomped off back in the direction of her quarters. Han didn't really care where she went.

It took a good while for Han to calm down. He had gone through a complete circuit of the outer circle of tunnels in Echo Base. After he had calmed, Han made his way back to the hangar. Upon reaching the Falcon, he found Chewie sitting on top of the Falcon, looking rather worried. Confused, Han asked, "Chewie? What's going on?"

Chewie shook his head and pointed to Corran and Kyle pacing around the hangar, then replied that Luke still had not returned from his scouting mission. No one had been able to raise him on the comm system. Even the Jedi were worrying. That was a bad sign.

"What do you mean, no one can raise him?" Han demanded, worried. "Luke would not just shut off his comlink. Is everyone sure he isn't back? He hasn't checked in?" The only response Han received was Chewie shaking his head mournfully. Han looked out the window and saw that the sky was colored in the dark pinks and purples of sunset instead of the bright blue of day, so he started to rush over to talk with the nearest deck officer when his comlink buzzed. Hoping it was Luke, he answered immediately. "Solo here."

"Han?" Leia replied, sounding very agitated. "Have you heard anything from Luke?"

Han paused for a moment. "Agitated" wasn't the correct word to use. "Terrified" was more like it. Past argument all forgotten, Han replied, "No, Princess. I just heard he was missing myself. I was just about to check in with one of the deck officers."

"Han..." Leia sounded on the verge of tears. "Mom was just talking to Adi, and Adi said she could barely sense Luke anymore. Han, it's getting dark and the temp's dropping."

Taking a deep breath, Han tried to calm Leia down. "Leia, it's all right. I know where Luke probably is. I made him give me his coordinates before I came back. Now don't worry. I'll go out and find him. Everything will be all right. Okay, Leia?"

Han heard muffled sobs on the other end of the comlink. "Find him quick, or I'll come out after you, Solo," Leia replied, voice still wavering. "I swear I will, dammit."

"I understand, Your Highness." Han grinned. "I'll be back before you know it." He heard a muffled response which was most likely affirmative, and Han went off to find the Deck Officer. It didn't take very long since he was shouting "Deck Officer" as loud as he could. The rather confused man came over. "Has Commander Skywalker reported in yet?"

"Uh, I haven't seen him. He might have forgotten to check in," the nervous Deck Officer replied. He's making excuses, Han thought. "Senator Amidala was just asking the officer in charge of the South Entrance, but she hadn't seen Commander Skywalker either."

"That's not like him," Han replied impatiently. "Are the speeders thawed out yet?"

The officer gulped, knowing Han wouldn't be particularly happy with he next part of his news. "No, sir. They're taking longer than we thought. They'll be ready in the morning."

"Then I'm taking a tauntaun out," Han informed the officer whom he was fed up with. "I know where Luke was last, so I'll be back before the shield doors have to be closed." Han went off to get a hold of a tauntaun. The deck officer was following him.

"Sir, the temperature's already falling rapidly. Your tauntaun probably wouldn't even make it past the first marker!" the officer exclaimed, trying to persuade Han from getting himself killed. Then they would be down not only a commander, but a major as well.

Having mounted a tauntaun while the officer was talking, Han shot back, "Then I'll see you in hell!" and he rode off to the coordinates he had forced out of Luke earlier in the day.

Luke knew he had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a while and therefore couldn't trust his sense of time. The only thing he had really noticed was that it was getting darker and colder, neither of which were good signs. Besides the looming threat of hypothermic shock, Luke knew that if he didn't get himself out of the current mess he was in, then he'd probably become a permanent fixture of the cave. That or food for the white snow creature which had beaten him up in the first place.

Slowly, he began to realize that he was temporarily completely conscious. Luke began to survey his surroundings. Gravity seemed to be a little off, which meant that he was probably hanging from the ceiling. Luke looked towards his feet. He was definitely stuck to and hanging upside-down from the ceiling. Managing to pull himself up to his feet, Luke tried to free himself by tugging at the straps of his boots. He gave up a few seconds later, quite tired from just that action, and surveyed the room some more. He spotted the ice creature a good few meters away. It was chewing on the remains of the tauntaun he had been riding. Luke felt a little nauseous from what he thought was the scene, but it wasn't like he hadn't seen blood before. It took a few seconds to register that the reason was he was probably the next course. The temporary bought of nausea had one beneficial side effect: he saw his lightsaber lying a few feet away from him. Nothing the Force couldn't solve.

Unfortunately, the ice creature had seemed to notice that its prey had awakened and was trying to escape, so Luke doubled his efforts. It was strangely very hard to concentrate on the Force, so he wasn't able to retrieve his saber until the creature was about two meters away. Luke cut himself down from the ceiling and ran as fast as he could away from the creature. At the end of the cave, Luke realized that he was probably being followed, but the Force told him that the creature wasn't coming after him. Very relieved, Luke started to move down the slope of the foothill that the cave was on.

After about ten or twenty minutes of trudging through the snow in the general direction he thought the base was in, Luke collapsed from the cold. He was visibly shivering and couldn't stop the action; it was also getting harder and harder to breathe. The hypothermia couldn't be setting in quite yet, could it? Luke tried to keep himself from panicking. Trying to keep himself conscious sounded like a good plan. Wasn't it bad if you fell unconscious if you were about to freeze to death? He considered counting things, but decided that that would probably make him pass out sooner than later. Recounting the events which lead him to the spot he was currently occupying sounded like a brilliant idea.

Luke remembered that right after Han had cut the transmission when they had been doing their scouting work, the tauntaun Luke had been riding had suddenly went berserk about something, which had turned out to be the snow creature. Luke had tried to calm the snow lizard down to no avail when the snow creature had swiped one of its paws at his face, knocking him off of his only ride back. It faintly occurred to Luke that he could feel the frozen blood still caked on his face from the attack. Regardless of the present, Luke was pretty sure that he had still been semiconscious when the snow monster had attacked the defenseless tauntaun and broken the poor creature's neck. At that point, Luke decided that maybe thinking about death wasn't the best course of action for him to take.

Luke noted that a snowstorm had started up. That wasn't exactly a good sign; it would make it harder for anyone to find him, if anyone found him at all. Black was starting to creep in along the edges of Luke's vision. None of that was good in the least. And I had always imagined myself getting killed in a battle... I guess I'll just have to settle for death by snowstorm, Luke thought. Brilliant, now I'm being morbid. No, that's not morbidity, that's being realistic. As he thought that, something registered far off in the distance. It looked like someone riding on a tauntaun. Shutting his eyes, Luke decided that he was hallucinating. "I wouldn't say that," Luke thought heard someone say to him. Luke opened his eyes and stared at the person who had spoken. Now Luke was really sure he was hallucinating. Most people, especially humans, were not transparent or blue in color.

The apparition chuckled. "No, you are not hallucinating on either count. That speck off in the distance is your friend coming to save you, so don't worry about that."

"Wh-who are you?" Luke managed to stammer out. It hurt to breathe, let alone talk.

The human-like person smiled. "Come now. I'm sure you have heard of me. Last time I listened in on a conversation between Obi-Wan and Mace, they were going on and on about how much more interesting the Council meetings would be if I were still alive."

"Wait---you couldn't be Qui-Gon Jinn, could you? But that would make you a---"

"A ghost, yes," Qui-Gon replied. "Well, I'm a ghost of sorts." He shrugged. "Regardless, the purpose of this highly entertaining and somewhat useful conversation is that I am supposed to be telling you to head over to the Dagobah system once the Rebel base on Hoth is destroyed. There you shall find Master Yoda and the other goofs known as the Jedi Council, my former padawan and his so-called 'idiot' former padawan included."

Luke was highly confused now. Why was a dead person speaking to him when he was about to die and telling him information which didn't seem all that useful? "Why?"

"There is no why," Qui-Gon replied cryptically. "At least, that's what Yoda said," he amended. "I have a second task for you, though. You need to make sure Darth Vader does not meet his end in this reality; he needs to return to his own and rectify his misjudgments. It is rather imperative. Besides, there used to be a scientific law that one person cannot be in two places at once. Vader and a certain Jedi are defying those laws, and they know it."

"What?" Luke asked. Now he was even more confused than ever. First his teacher's dead Master was here speaking to him, then Qui-Gon was going on about how Luke had to go to Dagobah, and now Qui-Gon was saying that a Sith and Jedi were breaking the laws of physics by merely existing? Would this day never end?

Qui-Gon finally realized he was confusing the young, half-frozen to death rebel commander. "I'll explain in a different way. Vader does not belong here, in this reality. He belongs in the reality that's one over. In that reality, I wouldn't be here talking to the other you on Hoth. Obi-Wan would be. He would have died on the Death Star helping to make sure you and your friends were able to escape to Yavin 4. In that reality, the other you would be twenty-one here, not seventeen like you. You wouldn't have known almost any of the Jedi: they would have all been dead. Vader belongs in that reality, albeit one year in the future after the event that corresponds to this one. He needs to return to that reality, otherwise a time-paradox would be created. The ones that changed the fate of this galaxy seventeen years ago are from that version of events, and if they were not living or in the correct place at the correct moment, then the events of our past would be nonexistent."

"Oh," Luke replied, now completely overwhelmed and confused, and passed out.

His duty to the other reality complete, Qui-Gon decided that Solo needed a push in the right direction. That darned smuggler was taking far too long. Qui-Gon leisurely floated over to Solo and planted the suggestion of going a few degrees to the left in his mind. Within a minute, Solo found Luke. Deciding that all would be well, Qui-Gon went back to pestering the Obi-Wan from the original reality with all the details of what was happening in the alternate one, right down to Vader's little episode with Padmé and the door.

Han dismounted his tauntaun and ran over to Luke. The kid sure had scared him this time. It was almost completely night, and Han couldn't really see how badly Luke was injured, but Han just knew that something was definitely wrong with him. If there wasn't, Luke wouldn't have a nice, thick covering of snow on him or be lying down, inert, in the middle of a snow field. "Oh, God. Come on, Luke, you can't be dead." Despite the cold, Han removed the glove from one of his hands and tried to find Luke's pulse. He sighed in relief when he found that Luke was still among the living. Han replaced his glove and thought about what to do next. Judging by the light, the shield doors would have already been closed, so it would be useless to try and return to base. It would be better to try and stay alive till morning.

Han heard Luke groan and saw that he had regained consciousness. "Han...? How... Why...? I thought you were going to Nar Shaddaa?" Luke murmured. "Why didn't you?"

"Look, Kid, we're going to stay around here for the night. There's no use trying to go back to the base," Han informed Luke while putting his glove back on, completely ignoring Luke's questions. "Stay tight, all right? I'll get the shelter up in a couple of minutes, okay?"

Luke managed to nod, and Han decided that Luke was in worse shape than he had originally thought. It looked like something had attacked him. The kid had been missing for how long out in this abominable weather? It was a miracle that Luke had survived this long.

Han turned around and got the pack off of the tauntaun. In it was an Alliance standard issue shelter and comlink, among other things. There was no use trying to raise the base on comlink with the snowstorm raging like it was, so Han set the box down next to Luke, and as he started to open it, the tauntaun died. Han was aware of the thump of the snow lizard hitting the ground, but didn't want to make completely sure that it had in fact died of cold and exhaustion. He checked anyway and groaned. "Great. Now we're really stuck out here," he mumbled to himself. A thought then struck Han. "Hey, Luke? You still awake?" Since he received no response besides labored breathing, Han took it as a no. If Luke was not conscious, then he probably wouldn't remember what Han had planned. Han found Luke's lightsaber and dragged the tauntaun over. He felt bad to be using the creature as a temporary heater, but it was that or risk the possibility of Luke still dying on him, so Han turned the sword on and cut the lizard open. "And I thought they smelled bad on the outside!" he exclaimed, trying not to retch from the smell. After shoving Luke close enough to it so he would be warmer, Han finally allowed himself to breathe again and started to set up the temporary shelter. Thank God the Alliance had bought the best equipment for that.

It was very dark now, and Leia's eyes were still glued to the icy expanse. She had rushed over to the hangar what seemed like days ago now when Han had told her that he was going to go out and look for Luke. Leia had wanted to catch Han before he left and had even entertained the thought of going out into the frozen wasteland with Han to help look for Luke. Unfortunately, Leia had arrived just as Han had rushed off, and she had furthermore also not moved from the spot she was in since then.

In the time between, Rogue Squadron in its entirety had congregated near the Falcon and the snow speeders to discuss a plan of action. They were currently trying to assign themselves to certain sectors of the surrounding area. It had been chaotic for most of the discussion, but Wedge had taken control after a while and was dictating orders. Leia decided to listen in. "Okay, Hobbie? You and I will take Sector One. Tycho, Wes, you guys are Sector Two. Dack, Inyri, Sector Three. Jesmin, Asyr, Sector Four. Corran, Ooryl, Sector Five. Zev, Sector Six." Wedge looked over to Kyle. "I think it would be better if you stayed back at the base and kept track of our progress."

Kyle nodded. "Probably," he agreed, but added, "I'm not a half bad pilot myself, yet I'm not part of you guy's squadron, so the higher ups would probably prefer it if I stayed behind rather than potentially wreck one of the speeders."

As they started to lay out the search plans on the maps they had acquired, Leia zoned them out again. She thought back to the conversation she had had with Han. Leia was almost positive that she had accidentally referred to her mother as her mother while talking to him and wondered if he had caught her slip. She thought back to Yavin and realized that she had made a slip there, too. Maybe Han already knew. But if he did, then why hadn't he talked to Leia about it?

Leia's gaze drifted over the R2-D2 and C-3PO. They were located near the doors, and she knew that Artoo was trying to search for Han and Luke on his sensors. Leia was almost positive that the little droid wasn't going to find any trace of either of them. She had an unexplainable feeling that her two friends were going to be fine, regardless of the odds that Artoo and Threepio were arguing about at the moment.

"Seven hundred and twenty-five to one, huh?" Padmé repeated. Leia hadn't noticed her mother come over. It seemed a little strange to Leia that Padmé seemed almost as upset as she was. "Well, I've heard worse odds," she added to lighten the atmosphere.

Leia nodded. "I have too, Mom. They've beat worse odds, and they'll beat these ones," she declared resolutely, not quite sure that she believed those words. "They'll come back alive. I just know it. Han will find Luke, and the Rogues will find them in the morning."

"The shield doors have to be shut soon," Padmé informed her daughter. "The second to last patrol just came back a few minutes ago." She stood in silence. "I don't want them to, personally, but Major Solo seems like the kind of person who wouldn't try to risk this weather to return to the base, especially if Luke is wounded."

Leia nodded and wondered why her mother had called Han by his rank and surname while calling Luke by his first name. Maybe it was because her mother somehow knew Luke was Obi-Wan's apprentice or because Luke was borrowing her last name. Leia was almost positive that her mother hadn't met Luke at all or Han properly as of yet, and her mother was acting like she had met both of them before. It made no sense at all.

A few minutes later, Leia was acutely aware of the approach of a lieutenant approaching Major Derlin. That only meant one thing. "Sir, all the scouts are in," Lieutenant Tehre reported. "There's still no sign---" The major shot him a look which meant quiet down so as to not upset Leia. They were only a couple of meters away. She was going to hear them, regardless. The lieutenant continued more quietly, "Still no sign of Skywalker or Solo."

"I take it the storm's getting worse and the temperature's still dropping?" Derlin queried. Tehre nodded. "The snow speeders have not completely thawed?" Tehre shook his head sadly. "Nothing more can be done tonight. The shield doors must be closed."

Tehre nodded. "Yes, sir. I'll go inform the crew." Leia watched him run off to the control room and told the occupants that it was time to shut the shield doors. The technicians immediately carried out the order, and Leia watched the doors creep towards one another to seal the inside of the base off from the outside world for the night. She almost felt detached from the entire situation, and the small inkling of hope she had was starting to turn into a full-blown assurance of the two's safety. If she was being delusional, Leia didn't want to face reality. Facing reality meant worrying. Not wanting to suffer anymore indecision, Leia walked back to her room to try and sleep and instead face what dark dreams would come.

Early the next morning when the shield doors were opened, Wedge assembled the Rogues for a quick briefing, just in case anyone had forgotten what they had discussed the night before. While he was talking, Wedge noticed a certain lithe, white-clad figure move stealthily towards the one snow speeder which was to be unoccupied. He finished the briefing and moved towards his snow speeder, making sure he was going to pass said figure. Lo and behold, Leia froze instantly when Wedge moved into her line of vision. She probably thought he'd tell her to go back. Wedge grinned. "Well, are you coming or not?"

"You don't mind if I take the last speeder?" Leia asked, a little confused.

Wedge shook his head. "Of course not, Princess. You've got the training required to fly them, and Han and Luke are your friends, too. Besides, no one was going to use that snow speeder anyway. It's bad luck, and you know how superstitious we pilots are."

Leia blinked in confusion. "Wait, this is Luke's?" Wedge nodded. "Then I'd better make sure I don't crash. Wouldn't really do if I destroyed Rogue Leader's snow speeder."

"No. No it wouldn't," Wedge agreed. "You heard the planning last night, so I won't have to tell you again. Why don't we designate you Rogue Thirteen for the time being?"

"If it's absolutely necessary for the comm transmissions, then I'm fine with it."

"Good." Wedge smiled at her, and climbed into the cockpit of his snow speeder and turned it on. The Rogues exited the hangar in numerical order and started the search. Kyle was keeping track of everything from the command center. Senator Amidala had made sure that there was a niche reserved for him the night before. Wedge and Hobbie were searching Sector One and were finding nothing at all. "Rogue Two to Rogue Four, I'm not finding anything at all. No traces of anything. What about you?"

Hobbie's voice crackled back over the comm, "Er, Two? I, uh, am having some technical difficulties. The sensor readings show a faint trace of a metallic object in a place it shouldn't be. That's not the technical difficulty, though. Oh, and no trace of Luke or Han."

"Hobbie... What have you done this time?" Tycho, Rogue Five, demanded.

"Nothing to deserve this horrible reaction from my so-called friends!" Hobbie replied.

"Tych, stop being so hard on the guy," Wes retorted. "And Ersatz Leader and Commando Double-Oh-Eight, we, Five and Seven, have no trace whatsoever of either the major or commander. There's also something weird going on. Right, Tych?"

"Lead and Command, Five. Seven and I have found some sort of metal object. Seven had visual confirmation. I think it's an Imperial probe droid."

"A probe droid?" Kyle exclaimed. "That makes no sense! Why would they send a probe droid here of all places? It's as useful as sending one to Mustafar."

"DOE, Seven. I still happen to think that the Imps are stationed at Mufasa."

"Lead and Command, Nine here. Neither me nor Ten've found anything at all," Asyr reported. "What's all this talk about animated lions?"

"Ten, Nine. They're talking about Mustafar. It's a fiery planet with massive volcanic activity," Jesmin told her. "Janson happens to think that the Imperials have their base of operations set up there, and always says the name of the planet wrong."

"Twleve here. Uh, Commando and Leader? Neither me nor Ooryl have found anything," Corran reported. "I thought I sensed something, but it turned out to be this snow monster. Reminded me of something out of a Corellian legend."

"Twelve, Two. Please don't say you found the abominable snowman."

Wes scoffed. He was probably shaking his head. "Twelve! We were looking for two humans, if you don't remember, not a legendary snow monster. So... What was it like?"

"Wes..." Tycho said threateningly. "If you don't stop goofing off... I swear to God."

"This is Rogue Thirteen. I haven't found a trace of either Han or Luke," Leia reported despondently. "And Wes, I agree with Tycho. Shut up. We can go after that thing later."

"Thirteen? I wasn't aware that we had acquired another pilot in the midst of all this."

Wedge felt like banging his head against the transparisteel of the cockpit of his snow speeder. "Seven, Two. Use your head for a change. We're not using voice changers. And Rogue Squad? Head over to Sector Six. That is, if you're sure nothing's in your sector." Wes should have recognized Leia's voice. It made sense that she was out here.

As everyone started to regroup in the sixth sector, Wes decided to do some detective work. "Thirteen? Does your name start with the same letter as our normal, non-ersatz leader? Or am I gravely mistaken, meaning that Tycho will hit me later?"

"Seven, Five. I was going to do that regardless. Two might want to as well."

"Seven, Thirteen. Of course. Who else do you think would be out here?"

"Maybe Senator Mothma felt like taking a joyride. It's possible, however unlikely."

"Everyone? It's Two. I'm sorta really having technical difficulties now. Anyone mind if I go back to base?" Hobbie asked. Something on his end sounded like it had exploded.

"Two, Twelve. We don't need another person lost out here. Head back now."

Suddenly, the comm traffic that everyone was hoping for came in. "Nice of you guys to drop by," a certain very sarcastic voice crackled over the comm.

"Command, Lead, this is Rogue Three. I found them. Repeat, I found them."

Han felt like he was half-frozen, but he was not really caring at the moment. Rogue Squadron had managed to find them pretty quickly, and for that he was glad. Han hoped that the High Command would not send him out on any more of the scouting assignments because of this mess. Rogue Three---Han was pretty sure Zev was his name---was in the middle of landing his snow speeder. As Han was wondering how they were going to take both him and Luke back to base, the rest of the Rogues decided to grace him with their presence. Somehow, Janson managed to land his snow speeder and climb out before Zev did. Han groaned as he realized he was going to be flying back to base with Janson.

Janson walked over and saluted. "Nice to see you're alive, Major Solo."

He was being formal. That was a bad sign. "What're you up to, Janson?"

"Why, nothing, sir," Janson replied a little too earnestly. "I was just telling a superior officer that I was glad that he has not gotten himself killed in this frozen wasteland."

Wedge and Zev had landed, and Wedge was walking over. Zev was dealing with whomever was back at the base. "Hey, Han. Where's Luke? Is he all right?"

Han grinned. "The kid's a little banged up, but he'll make it." He grimaced and continued, "However, Janson won't tell me what the hell he's up to. He's being too polite."

"Wes, what are you planning?" Wedge demanded. "If this has anything to do with
that damned snow monster Corran found, I'll report you to the High Command."

"Wedge!" Wes exclaimed, horrified. "You'd actually go as far to report me, of all people? If you do that, then I'll tell them about the time you accidentally---"

"We don't need to talk about that, Wes," Wedge cut him off. "Han, how badly..."

Han shook his head. "Luke's in pretty bad shape. He was out on the plains for who knows how long, which means he might have hypothermia and possibly some frostbite, and he somehow acquired these cuts on his face. The snow speeders carry two people, right? Who are we going to have transport Luke back?"

"I volunteer Wedge," Wes decided. "He's one of the best pilots in the squad."

"Well, we know who isn't going to," Wedge murmured, meaning Wes certainly wasn't going to be assigned that task. "Han, has Luke been conscious at all?"

"Yes," Han replied. "He's been fading in and out since I found him last night. At one point, we started talking, and it seemed like he was sort of on edge about something, probably that snow monster. He didn't mention it or how he got all beat up, though."

Wes looked around. "Hey, Han, when'd your tauntaun die? I thought that it probably wouldn't have made it past the second marker, and he were are near the fifth."

Han stared at Wes. "I think it died right where you're standing," Han answered in a deadpan. "Not sure, though. There was a bad snowstorm last night. When I found Luke, he had a good half inch of snow covering him. Anyway, we should get him back to base." He turned to Wedge. "Wedge, could you give me a hand with carrying Luke?"

"Yeah, of course," Wedge replied, and the two walked into the shelter Han had put up the night before. Luke, unconscious yet again and still shivering uncontrollably, was lying next to the thermal heater and wrapped up in the pack's emergency blanket on the stretcher which had also been included in the pack. "I'm glad someone finally decided that those things should be used for their intended purpose," Wedge commented about the blankets.

"Really," Han agreed as he picked up the top part of the stretcher. Wedge picked up the other end. "We should make sure Wes doesn't pull one of his snowball wars again."

"Unless it's on a planet where we don't need emergency blankets," Wedge added as he and Han were moving Luke outside. "Of course, that would mean no snow, either."

To Han's complete and total surprise, Leia rushed over to them. "Han!" Leia exclaimed happily. Then she saw Luke. "Oh, Force... Is Luke going to---to---"

"No, Leia," Han replied calmly. She looked like she'd been really upset. "He's going to be fine. Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right, you'll see."

Leia nodded. "I'll take him back to base," she volunteered. Han and Wedge exchanged glances with each other and followed Leia back to her snow speeder. It took about fifteen minutes to transfer Luke from the stretcher to the gunner's seat in the snow speeder and secure him in. In that period of time, Han decided that he was going to be riding back to base with Wedge, despite whatever Wes had been planning. Wedge had a pretty good idea what Wes had been plotting, and it had to do with having a certain ex-smuggler riding back to base with a certain princess. Once Luke was secured in the seat, Leia jumped into the speeder and started up the engine. Han and Wedge went back to where the others were and watched Leia speed off back to the base. A few minutes out, Leia turned her comlink back on and announced, "Rogue Thirteen to Echo Base, requesting medics to be standing by at arrival." Hopefully, they would comply with the order.

"Leia? What's going on?" her mother asked over the comm unit. "Why are you pretending to be one of the Rogues? And why do you need medics to be..." She drifted off, realizing why Leia was calling for medics to be waiting. "Is it Commander Skywalker?"

Leia was really confused now. First her mother was referring to Luke by his first name, now she was giving Luke the same treatment as Han? Leia didn't understand her mother at all. Of course, her mother could have just been trying to keep from associating danger with Luke, but why would she do that? "Yes, Senator Amidala. He's suffering from hypothermia, I think, and the rest of the Rogues think that he was attacked by one of these snow monsters that Rogues Eleven and Twelve ran into."

"H-how bad are the wounds?" her mother asked. Leia started to wonder if her mother was hiding something having to do with Luke from her.

"They look bad, but they aren't serious," Leia reported. "Major Solo is completely fine. A little cold, but fine, nevertheless. He's coming back with Lieutenant Antilles."

"I'm glad to hear it," her mother told her. "Echo Base, out."

Leia turned her comm off again and started to slow down in order to enter the base's hangar and not crash into anything. She slowed and eased the speeder down once inside the hangar. A whole group of medics were awaiting her arrival. Apparently her mother had pulled a few strings. Leia hopped out of the speeder and watched as the medics put Luke on a stretcher and rushed him off to the medical wing. She decided to follow them and did.

Above the hangar was an observation area. Padmé was standing there, looking out the window, and had watched as her daughter had watched the medics take the almost frozen form of the young officer out of the back seat of the speeder. She couldn't believe that she had even allowed the Rogues to have been given the scouting jobs. If she hadn't, then maybe this disaster had not happened. Of course, the young man (No, he's only a boy, Padmé thought) knew the dangers when he signed up with this military outfit, but she couldn't just lose her son without ever knowing, let alone seeing, him. Padmé shook her head and wondered if she should call Anakin or not and tell him what had happened.

"Padmé? Are you all right?" Mon asked from the doorway. "I heard that Rogue Squadron found Commander Skywalker and Major Solo... and that the commander is in need of medical attention. The medics say that he'll recover completely."

"I'm happy to hear that," Padmé replied, very relieved. "Now I won't have to tell his father about this. Anakin doesn't need to be worrying about either of the children."

Mon walked over to where Padmé was standing. "They don't know, do they?"

Padmé shook her head. "No. The Order was adamant about them not knowing each other or letting Luke even know his real name until he passes his trials."

"Major Solo suspects the truth, Padmé," Mon informed her. "He confronted Bail about it a while after Rogue Squadron found out Bail was only Leia's godfather."

"What about Luke? I haven't really talked to anyone since I arrived. Solo was talking to the girl that brought me here before he decided to join the conversation between Bail and me. We talked a little, but I couldn't really find anything out about Luke or Leia."

Mon smiled. "They're both very popular with Rogue Squadron, as you could probably tell. It makes perfect sense once you understand that Luke's command is over that squadron. He and his friend Wedge Antilles founded the squadron. The reason Leia's so popular with those, for lack of a better word, goofballs is that one of the pilots, Wes Janson, has been playing matchmaker with Solo and Leia. That, and she is their friend."

"Is Luke a good pilot like his father?" Padmé asked.

"He's one of the best, Padmé, if not the best," Mon replied. "Sometimes I wonder if he's actually better than your husband. That shot at the Death Star was one in a million."

Padmé smiled. "That reminds me of something Anakin once said to Leia: 'In this family, you have to at least blow up a space station threatening the freedom or well-being of at least one planet or negotiate some big treaty-thingy by the time you're thirty.' "

"I take it that you quoted him directly there?" Mon guessed, also smiling now.

"How could I forget? He was trying to teach her how to cook, too, so that meant that they were both covered in flour. It was hilarious. I couldn't even identify what was cooking."

Mon decided that it was time to ask. "Would you like to visit the medical center?"

Padmé nodded. "That would be really nice. Do I need any clearance at all?"

Mon shook her head. "Of course not. You're his mother. And, as it so happens, one of the four leaders of this whole operation. You can be the representative of the High Command which we sent to ascertain what has happened."

"Sometimes knowing politics this well pays off," Padmé commented.

"With it, we can simultaneously confuse and annoy most of the fighter pilots. I must say that it really is a gift," Mon agreed. "Especially when it comes to Rogue Squadron."

Han and Wedge arrived at the hospital wing about a half an hour after Senator Amidala. Chewie and Leia were already there, and, from what the two men could tell, she was a little distressed. Of course, both Han and Wedge were stretching the truth a bit with how distressed the Princess was. The medical droids had already put Luke in a bacta tank, and the Senator was talking to one of the medics about Luke's current condition. Han tapped Leia on the shoulder. She turned around, and Han told her what was going on, "Sorry we're late returning, but Wedge and I followed Corran over to where he said he'd seen that monster before checking out that metallic thing everyone kept talking about."

Leia thought back. "The metallic object? What was it, an Imperial Probe droid?"

Wedge nodded. "Yeah. Han blew it up. Unfortunately, it had already transferred some sort of encoded message back to their fleet. The Empire probably knows that we're here. If we're lucky, though, we might be able to convince them that this is a colony."

Senator Amidala overheard the comment and informed them, "No. Certain members of the Imperial hierarchy know of the location of the base. If the others find out, then there isn't much more those with the knowledge can do to stop the battle."

"From your time spent on the Imperial base, Senator," Leia started, "how long do you think that it will take for the Imperials to gather a force and commence the attack?"

Amidala shook her head. "I'm not sure. It may be days, it may be weeks. We should start to prepare for an evacuation immediately, even if the probe droid saw nothing," she replied before going back to talking with the medic.

"Since when has the High Command been interested in the injuries that a squadron leader acquires while going on scouting missions?" Han wondered out loud.

Wedge shrugged. "I dunno, and I'm not sure I really care about the High Command at the moment. Just don't tell Wes. He'll think it's a conspiracy." He turned back to Leia. "What do the doctors say about Luke? How long are they going to keep him in the bacta?"

"It depends on how well he does," Leia replied and shook her head. "They didn't really say. You said that you looked for that snow creature? Did you find it?"

"Uh, yeah. We did," Han replied after a few seconds of silence. Neither he nor Wedge had wanted to say anything. The event had been embarrassing enough as it was.

Leia stared at her friends. They were definitely either up to something or hiding something, the latter being most likely. "And what happened?"

"We're pretty sure that's what attacked Luke, judging by the thing's claws," Wedge answered. "We found it shortly after the probe droid blew up. It ate my blaster. Don't ask."

"I wasn't planning on it, Wedge," Leia replied. She paused. "Did you tell anyone about these things so we can increase security?"

"Yes," Han replied nonchalantly. "We told the other Rogues, and they're spreading the word all around the base. We left Wes in charge of reporting to the High Command about it." Wedge could only stare at Han when he told the lie. They had truly told Rieekan.

"What!" Leia shouted, somewhat infuriated. "You left Wes Janson to tell the High Command about snow creatures! Are you both insane!"

Wedge stared at the floor. "Um, no to your second question, and yes to the third. We informed General Rieekan right before we came here, but the Rogues do know."

There was another moment when all three were silent, and the atmosphere became grave again. "The kid is going to be okay, isn't he?" Han finally asked, his worry obvious.

Leia sniffed and nodded. "The doctors said he'll have a full recovery. It might take some time, like I said earlier, but they just aren't sure. It'll be a week, at max."

"Sounds like he'll come out just in time for the evacuation," Han commented. "Lucky him. No endless meetings about how we'll accomplish the exodus from this hell for him."

Not a very long way across the galaxy, a certain Dark Lord was moping around his newly constructed Super Star Destroyer. None of the others who he had met at that first meeting were also present on the ship, a fact which made him rather happy. The only possibly incompetent person he had recently run into was the Admiral controlling the ship. Force, was Ozzel annoying. Vader had always liked Piett better, and now he was having a crash course as to the reason that he had promoted Piett in the first place. Oh well, if the Executor and the other Star Destroyers assigned to be with the flagship came out of hyperspace too close to the system, then Ozzel will have another unexpected surprise. Vader turned subtly to watch a certain scene from the past. Ozzel was always annoying.

The man which was responsible for a number of the probe droids called Captain Piett over and told the Captain about how he had just received a transmission from the probe droid on an icy planet called Hoth. Piett listened to what the officer had to say and was about to walk off to find Admiral Ozzel when the man came over. "Sir, we seem to have found something," the Captain reported.

"Yes, I can see that. What is it that you've found, Captain?" Ozzel demanded.

"Admiral, we have a lead from the probe droid in the Hoth system. The information is incomplete and the report sketchy at best, but it's the best lead we've had for---"

"We have hundreds of thousands of probe droids searching the galaxy for the Rebel base," Ozzel cut him off. "I want proof, not leads, Captain!"

Vader decided to break in at this point. Ozzel was wearing on his nerves. He stalked up behind Ozzel for effect before asking, "I take it you've found something, Captain?"

Both Ozzel and Piett visibly jumped before Piett replied, "Yes, sir. The droid recorded images of a generator and possibly some anti-starcraft missile silos. Earlier, there was a group of snow speeders which had what looked like Rebel markings. Furthermore, the system is supposed to be devoid of humans, and while this might be a small colony or smuggler's base, I highly doubt it since everything else seems to point to the Rebels."

Vader pretended to consider it and looked at the screen on which the tape was playing before snapping at Ozzel, "That's it." Before Ozzel could protest, Vader cut him off. "The Rebel base is there. Set course for the Hoth system," he ordered and whirled around.
Veers was standing there, looking completely at attention. Ozzel was standing off to the side, looking shocked. "General Veers, prepare your men for the ground assault." Vader watched his subordinates scurry off to accomplish their tasks. The only thing that might be even a little different about that conversation was Piett talking a little more, Ozzel talking less (always a bonus), and there had been no mention of a certain Force-strong Rebel.

Said Rebel was finally finished with the bacta treatments and currently lying in a hospital bed. Luke decided that he was never again going to be injured badly enough to merit another dip in the bacta. Then again, the positive side of the whole debacle was that he had not had to take part in the planning of the impending evacuation of the Hoth base. Wedge had visited him already and informed him of Rogue Squadron's newest prank on the High Command. Luke had been less than amused to hear that it had to do with the snow creature which had been identified as a wampa. Wedge had assured him that he hadn't approved of it either. After a couple of minutes of catching up, Wedge had left to go try and keep the Rogues under control. Han and Chewie arrived shortly thereafter.

Chewie barked hello, and Han grinned. "Hey, Kid. Feeling better?"

Luke smiled back and nodded. "Thanks to you," he replied gratefully.

"So that's how many you owe me now?" Han asked, jokingly. Leia entered the room at this point. "Why hello, Your Highness. I've heard that you managed to keep me around here for a few more days. I didn't know you cared."

"Do be so full of yourself, Solo," Leia shot back, peeved at Han's behavior. "General Rieekan decided that none of the ships could leave the system for the rendez-vous point until the shield generators are active. It had absolutely nothing to do with me."

"I must admit that makes sense," Han acquiesced before grinning and continuing, "But I think you just couldn't let me out of your sight."

"I wonder how these ideas enter your head. You're delusional, laser brains," Leia shot back, rolling her eyes. Chewie laughed at the exchange between the two.

"Laugh it up, fuzzball!" Han told Chewie. "You didn't see us alone in the south passage! She expressed her true feelings for me." Luke was trying not to laugh.

Leia snapped, finally loosing her temper completely. She was struggling to come up with an insult. "You---you half-witted, scruffy-looking nerfherder! I said no such thing!"

Han looked genuinely hurt, but Luke soon learned otherwise. "Who's scruffy-looking?" He turned to Luke, grinning. "I must've hit pretty close to the mark. Right, Kid?"

Luke shrugged. He didn't particularly want to get involved in this particular fight. Leia glanced at him then back at Han. "You don't understand anything about women," Leia declared to Han then walked over and kissed Luke, much to the surprise of the other occupants of the room, before storming out of the room.

Han and Luke were staring at the spot where Leia had been, completely silent. Finally, Luke managed to break the silence, if only to assure Han that Leia was probably just trying to make Han jealous. "That was weird. It felt like I was kissing my sister."

Vader grinned like an idiot when Veers informed him that Ozzel had come out of hyperspace too late, meaning that the Rebel's shield on Hoth was up. After he dismissed the General, he brought up a line to the bridge and had a little discussion with Ozzel for the last time again. Ozzel fell over with a gasp, and Vader concluded the transmission, "You are in command now, Admiral Piett." Piett was such a better officer. Knew when to shut up, too.

Vader stood up and walked to the bridge. By the time he reached his normal position next to the viewports, the Battle of Hoth was underway. The strategy of the day for the Rebels was fire a few blasts at whatever Star Destroyer was nearest the Rebel transport, then have the transport try to escape to hyperspace with two X-wings or other fighters flanking it. Like in the other reality, it was working. Vader didn't really care whether the Rebel Alliance escaped. The bigger prize was the overthrowing of Palpatine. In the current reality, there was nothing wrong with the system that wasn't also wrong back in the reality Vader was from. In fact, many things seemed much better here than there. Maybe he could rig it so the less-corrupt Republic triumphed over the Empire at the Battle of Endor while saving the brilliant military minds and ships. That would be the best of all possible worlds.

Veers disrupted the Dark Lord's reverie by reporting that the shield generators were in sight. Vader gave the command to open fire then headed down to a hangar bay to fly a transport down to maybe catch the Princess (Damn her similarity with Padmé!) and Solo, the ever annoying smuggler, before they escaped the planet. The battle was probably going the same way it had been with the snow speeders tying up the legs of the AT-ATs and acting like annoying little bugs to the larger vehicles. The Rebellion was no doubt suffering heavy losses, but the thought that something could go different entered Vader's head. He quashed the thought as fast as it had surfaced, and the ship landed on the planet.

Vader stalked around for a while before finding a platoon of snowtroopers and heading around the base, looking for Solo and the Princess. After a nice amount of stalking and storming, he decided to go to the hangar and see if they were there. As he thought, the Millennium Falcon, or the Ancient Rust Bucket as he liked to call it, was prepping to leave. The snowtroopers were setting up a gatling gun, but the ship blasted out of the hangar before even the first shot had been fired. Vader wasn't surprised, and he calmly made his way back to the shuttle he had flown down to the planet in and flew back to the Executor.
A few minutes later, the Dark Lord of the Sith made a call to a certain bounty hunter.

Leia was not happy. Leia was far from happy. Leia was downright furious. Han wondered why she was angry with him. It wasn't his fault that the hyperdrive on the Falcon wasn't working. After their close call with Vader, Han had decided to hightail it out of the system only to find that the hyperdrive was broken. To remedy this, Han and Chewie had decided to take the ship into the asteroid field, and they were now sitting in a cavern inside one of the larger asteroids. Goldenrod, who had managed to gain permission to board the ship, was repeating the phrase, "We're doomed!" over and over again. That didn't help with the atmosphere all that much. After a while, Han managed to talk the prissy droid into helping by translating what the Falcon's computer was trying to say.

A few minutes later, Han ran into Leia in the hallway. There was an interesting discussion, and Han knew now that Leia really did like him. They had actually kissed, but Threepio accidentally walked in on them. That ruined the mood fast, and Leia had rushed out of the room at mach speed, leaving a disappointed and somewhat angry smuggler glaring at a confused protocol droid. The glaring finally got to the droid, who walked off, and Han calmed down a little. He had no clue why he was acting like he had been, and to make matters worse, Han felt a little weird liking a girl ten years younger than him, but at the same time, it felt right, too. Maybe it was fate? Shaking his head, Han went back to work.

Luke had met up with the rest of the Rogues at their rendezvous point. It was different than the place where the rest of the Alliance was supposed to be meeting. He had personally requested the mission to go talk with the Jedi Council on the planet they were on. From the looks on the faces of the members of the High Command, it seemed like they had no clue where the Jedi were supposed to be, so Luke took it as a sign that he had not been hallucinating about a deceased Jedi Master after he had escaped from the wampa. Checking his radar screen, the whole squadron was presently in the Dagobah system. He turned the comm system on. "Rogue Leader to Rogue Two. How many of us do you think we should send down to the surface? I was thinking about half the squad. And then, who?"

There was a somewhat long pause from Wedge. "I dunno, Luke. Half the squad sounds good, but it would look a little conspicuous to Imp Intel if there were six X-wings orbiting around a primitive swamp planet. Then again, I'm guessing you mean to have the other six hide around and keep on guard for any Imps, so that would be useful." Wedge paused again, thinking about whom they should send down. "As to the ground crew... You need to go since you're the leader. Corran would probably like to go. I'm guessing you meant to assign me down there, too. Tycho's one of the few obvious choices due to his patience. Hobbie would prefer to stay relatively out of danger for the moment, considering how banged up his X-wing is, and Wes would have a fit if we left him out in space."

Luke grinned. "Exactly what I was thinking. You think Dack and Zev'll be all right hiding out there, though? Their X-wings are in pretty bad shape, maybe even worse than Hobbie's. They'd have to be assigned to either Inyri or Ooryl."

Wedge replied immediately. "I'd assign Inyri to Dack. They worked well together while we were all searching for you back on Hoth. It sounds like you're keeping Jesmin and Asyr together, so when're you going to announce this to the squad?"

"Now," Luke replied before switching from the private channel to the squadron's collective channel. "Well, Rogues. Half of us are going down, the other half gets to camp out in-system, but for the sake of the Imps' Intel, make yourselves scarce. The ground crew, Flight Delta, is comprised of me, Two, Four, Five, Seven, and Ten. Everyone else is Flight Echo. Before anyone starts complaining: Three, I don't think you'd be able to make an atmosphere landing in one piece; Six, that goes for you, too. Eight, you're with Six. Nine, Ten. Three, Eleven. Any questions?"

"Yes, Lead," Wes replied. "I was wondering if you know why the Jedi would be on this swampy planet which has no technology? I would have thought they'd go for Hapes."

Before Tycho could tell Wes to be quiet, Corran replied sarcastically, "Right. And I'm a Kowakian monkey lizard's uncle. The Queen of Hapes hates all of the Jedi."

"Now come on guys, this isn't the time to be bickering," Luke tried to mediate. Needless to say, it did not work all that well. Wes and Corran were now in the middle of a completely pointless conversation about why the Jedi would not be on Hapes. "Okay," Luke said, partially to silence the two, but mostly to get down to business. It was necessary that they make this trip as quick as possible. "Flight Echo, go hide out but make sure to contact me or Wedge if any Imperials show up. Flight Delta, start your decent."

"Aye, aye, Commander!" Wes replied cheerfully as the two groups split up and went their separate ways. It only took a few minutes to reach the planet's atmosphere, and that was when the trouble began. However, only two of the six were having problems with the planet's atmosphere. The two which the Jedi Council knew would have no trouble landing their craft, hence the exercise. The remaining four were given instructions via comlink (in addition to lights to guide them down). Corran grumbled a long strain of Corellian curses under his breath, and Luke momentarily wondered if he should have listened to Qui-Gon.

It was a rough landing for them all, but the X-wings made it down to the surface more or less intact. The only mishap was that Luke had landed in the middle of a swamp, much to his annoyance. After calming himself down, Luke got out of his X-wing. He looked down at the swamp, the swamp seemed to stare back, and Luke decided that he was just going to wait for his friends to find him. Who knows what was in there, and he wasn't planning to find out. Artoo was currently peering over the edge of the X-wing, too. If he falls in, I'm so not going to get him out unless he almost gets eaten, Luke decided just as Artoo used his hoverjets to glide over to what could be considered the bank of the swamp. Artoo whistled something to the effect of, "Come on! It's just a little swamp on a remote planet! What could possibly go wrong? It's not like there's some monster lurking beneath the surface." As if on cue, some sort of swamp monster surfaced and started circling around the X-wing. Luke sensed more than a little Force-manipulation at work and tried to locate the Jedi Master who was most likely responsible for the whole thing. "Master Skywalker! Could you call off the monster from the black lagoon?" he whined. "I don't need you making fun of me, too!"

Laughing a little, Anakin came out of from behind where Artoo was. He grinned. "Sorry, Kid. I couldn't resist. I wonder how you managed to land in that particular mud-hole, though. Oh, and the so-called swamp monster is actually Adi covered with brown algae. She only agreed to do this as a sort of revenge against Yoda's cooking."

Luke just stared at the Jedi Master, completely confused as to why that would make one of the most respected Jedi Masters swim around in a swamp in aid of a practical joke. Luke ignored that question and instead asked, "Should I take my X-wing somewhere else?"

Anakin thought about it and shook his head. "Nah. We'll get it unstuck later," he decided. Smiling at Luke, he continued a little more seriously, "So are you going to sit there all day, or are you going to come over here? I know you aren't all that fond of swamps, but I think it might be a little hard for the Council to talk to you and the others about the Rebellion."

Luke's face turned red. Why did Master Skywalker always act like this, joking one moment and concerned the next? It only happened around Luke, too. He knew that much from Corran and some of the other apprentices. What the older Jedi had mentioned was an incident about six years before when Anakin and Obi-Wan had been assigned a mission which would be perfect to take Corran and Luke on. No one had been injured, but Luke had been dragged under for a few moments by a diagona which had been waiting in the murky water of a swamp that they had been traveling through. Needless to say, the event had been somewhat traumatic to Luke, causing his mild phobia and the current predicament.

"Do you want me to levitate you over?" Anakin asked concernedly, sensing Luke's uneasiness. "It's all right. There's nothing wrong with being scared, and I really don't mind."

If Luke had been in any other situation and the person saying that had not been Anakin, Luke would have glared and taken offense at that statement. It was true that his fear of swamps wasn't as bad as his arachnophobia, but he was still afraid. If any of the Rogues found out... Luke didn't want to even think about it, but a voice in the back of his head told him that not even Wes would pull a prank like that. Regardless, the sooner he was out of the situation, the better, even if it did mean admitting that he was scared to the one person he respected the most. Making up his mind, Luke shut his eyes and nodded.

Anakin smiled and easily levitated the entire X-wing out of the swamp and set it down on a patch of mostly dry ground a few meters away. From the other side of the swamp, Adi, still completely covered in kelp, rolled her eyes and murmured, "Showoff," which Anakin decided to ignore. Anakin strode over to Luke, who had climbed down from the X-wing immediately after it had been set down. Artoo followed for lack of anything better to do than listen in on their conversation. "Better now?" Anakin asked.

"Y-yes," Luke replied. "I'm sorry I froze up---I should have a better control of my emotions." He paused, embarrassed. He was seventeen, for Force's sake! He shouldn't act like a scared child. "Please don't tell the others!" Luke pleaded, a little frantic. "I just---"

"Calm down. Being afraid is nothing to be ashamed of, Luke," Anakin said, attempting to allay Luke's embarrassment. Anakin seemed a little troubled by the plea to not tell the other Rogues about the incident, but the moment passed. Luke couldn't even hazard a guess as to what the Jedi Master was thinking. "Besides, no one needs to know about this, and Adi isn't going to say anything other than I convinced her to act like a swamp monster." There was a brief pause before Anakin continued, "It's getting late. We should head over to where the Council and your friends are."

Luke nodded, very happy to end the conversation there, and followed Anakin to where the others were supposed to be. They took a winding pathway through the dense forest, and Luke had a feeling of déja-vu. Maybe this is supposed to be one of the other places where my path intersects with my other self... he thought. After all, it made sense. If someone on the Jedi Council had thought to come to this planet in this world, then wouldn't the same Jedi Master come here in the other reality? Luke decided to halt his train of thought. It was just too confusing to think of other realities since he had no proof of them, and he was still trying to maintain that he was probably just having a hallucination back on Hoth. Luke barely noticed that Master Skywalker gave him a weird look when Luke had thought about the supposed vision, and Luke just ignored it. Within a few minutes, they reached their destination, and half the Council was ready to shove a certain Rogue off his mortal coil.

"I see Flight Officer Janson has already made friends with the Council," Anakin commented wryly, causing the majority of the people there to roll their eyes. "So, since we're all here, why not get down to business?" Since none of the other Council members said anything and Yoda happened to be making dinner ("Escaped the crazies, I did"), Anakin turned to Rogue Squadron and started to interrogate them. "What's the Rebellion up to these days? Anything even semi-interesting happen recently?"

Tycho shrugged. "You could say that. We just evacuated from our base on Hoth."

"And an Imperial spy or assassin (we're not quite sure what she was) delivered Senator Amidala from the Imps a few days, maybe a week, back," Wes added. "It was a very interesting experience. I had the feeling the Imp was just barely keeping herself from telling me to shut up, but I don't generally have that effect on people until I meet them."

"Which means that we probably know this person," Hobbie deduced. The Rogues said little to nothing about that point until Wes commented, "Do you think that Isard's been telling all the Imperials about how 'God damn annoying' we are?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Tycho replied before turning to the Council. "So, we've supposedly been planning a major attack on an Imperial held world, but I think that might be postponed until we find a base and actually stay there for a while."

Corran nodded and continued the report. "We're supposed to regroup around the Sullust area, but I think it was changed to this one planet, either Nesrohba or GO-1984, but I'm almost positive that it was Nesrohba since the new government just decided that they were going to support the Alliance. The new base is probably going to be located there."

"The High Command would like to know if any of the Jedi would be for helping with the cause in any way, shape, or form," Wedge added. "Any help at all would be very greatly appreciated, due to our somewhat poor spirits after our evacuation."

Wes stared at Wedge. "After our evacuation? Wedge! Everyone's freaking happy as hell that we're finally leaving that frozen wasteland we called Hoth! I bet most of the fleet's celebrating the evacuation. Remember that we were actually planning on throwing a party for all of the fighter pilot squadrons (even the A-wing squads) when we left?"

Luke tried to ignore Janson and finished the report that the High Command wanted him to give. "In conclusion, we're not on Hoth anymore. The Rebellion's in transit to Nesrohba, and we're setting up base in the Y'sat Naflan-if system on the third planet from the sun, YSNI-3. Senators Organa, Mothma, and Bel Ibis are returning to Coruscant for the time being due to certain investigations which are taking place, leaving Senator Amidala to be at the base constantly. We plan to launch an attack on Imperial space in approximately one month on Mustafar, which Flight Officer Janson believes is the Imperial base. If that is actually the case, we probably will call off the attack and strike someplace less secure. The Rebellion also requests some military support from any of the Jedi, and the High Command wishes to know if there is any sort of spy network set up at all."

"I've been highly involved in the process of setting one up, but there is no definite system as of yet," Aalya replied. "We're still trying to find a way to infiltrate the Imperial Navy without the Sith knowing of our presence. However, once the program is off the ground, I'm sure that we would be able to facilitate the Alliance's current network."

At this point, the Council started to ask questions of the fighter pilots, and the first of them to start asking questions was Mace, who had been particularly concerned about the current state of affairs within the Alliance and specifically the win-loss records. "Concerning the Alliance's current record in battles won to battles lost, it seems as if we are losing the war, and not just losing the war, but losing the war by a long stretch. Is that only a statistical fluke, and the truth is the opposite, or is there some other explanation?"

Tycho was the most informed about that sort of data since he was friendly with Winter, the living encyclopedia, and answered the question. "The Alliance has managed to recruit a good deal of people after every battle, mostly from the then Imperial-held worlds, and our ranks have grown a great deal since the Battle of Yavin. We do lose battles on a regular basis from the Imperial point of view, but we generally complete most of the mission objectives of any mission which ended up resulting in a battle, Citenik and Hoth excluded. Selttiks was a unique circumstance where we, Rogue Squadron, and the 181st decided that the entire battle was pointless, and we went our separate ways and made up an excuse for ditching the battle. We said we had an organized retreat; they said they soundly defeated us. It worked out both ways, but we did eventually tell the truth."

"And is the newest base on YSNI-3 currently at least partially set up, or is the Alliance going to start from scratch?" Plo asked. "What does the High Command think is a good time for the Council to start sending Jedi to help with the resistance? Or would it be wiser for the two groups to work independently of one another?"

"The High Command has little opinion on that point," Luke replied. "They feel that it would be beneficial for the two groups to work together, however, there is the security issue to be dealt with. If the location of one of the group's bases is discovered by the Imperials through the interrogation of a captured member of either group, then it would be better if the person did not know where the other group was supposed to be located."

"Meaning we have to stay here and weather more of Yoda's cooking," Anakin concluded rather morosely and whined, "Why couldn't we all just have been in one place?"

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and said, "Keep it down, Anakin. If you insist on talking so loud, Yoda might hear you, and we'll all be in trouble, which we don't need. Remember what he made last night? I don't think it was just me that had no clue what it was."

"Yoda said something about mushrooms," Adi mentioned, "which was why I didn't even attempt to eat it, much less figure out what it was." On that note, she turned to the Rogues. "If you're finished with the information sharing now, I suggest you get out of here before Yoda finishes dinner. If you thought rations were bad..."

Somewhat disturbed, Wes' eyes widened. "There's actually a food which is worse than rations?" he asked, hoping it wasn't true, but Adi nodded. Wes turned to the other Rogues. "As much as I'd like to try out whatever recipe that is on the High Command..." Wes shuddered, and ignoring the frantic prankster, Wedge asked, "Is there anything other information that we should take back to the Alliance?"

The Jedi Council thought about it for a minute or so before Depa replied, "No, not really. If anything important comes up, we can always just comm the Rebellion."

Tycho was confused. "Then what was the purpose of our coming here?" he queried.

Aaron glanced at Yoda's hut, making sure he wasn't around. "We needed to talk to someone else. This place is starting to feel like a desert island of which we cannot get off. If we have to stay here for years, I can't imagine what we'd be like once we finally left."

"Wow. A few years of only having each other and Yoda to talk to? I'd say that's cruel and unusual punishment," Corran stated. "Oh, and Kyle sends his regards. I'll tell him you envied his commando job because he can escape the base every once in a while."

"Was the planet of Hoth really that bad?" Mace asked. "In most of the mission reports that your squadron passed on to us, it was called many negative things having to do with frozen water and the netherworld. Most of the Council has been wondering as to the veracity of those claims for various reasons including a want to leave this planet."

All of the Rogues present looked at each other, and Hobbie answered. "Um, first off, words couldn't describe how horrible Hoth was, and second of all, it would probably be a smarter idea to go to Mustafar than to go to Hoth, but that depends on your tastes."

It was a dark and somewhat stormy night in the city of Nod'nol, and a certain assassin was stalking about aimlessly. She had just been at a cinema and watched one of the old classics of film (when it had still been 2-D). The film had been a musical which had a large resemblance to the opera La Bôhème and the main character of the story looked eerily like a certain Jedi Master who was to remain anonymous. Regardless of her activities earlier in the day, Mara was now looking for a tavern by the name of Serenity. It was a well known bar, and she had only needed to follow the drunks which were rambling around to find it. In the bar, she was supposed to meet with an Imperial spy who was hiding among the Rebels. Mara had long entertained the notion of killing the spy, but she decided that it would be bad form. Plus, she had the sneaking suspicion that it was against the Jedi Code.

After a few minutes, she reached the bar and entered. It was the usual type of bar, filled with all sorts of miscreants and privateers, as well as the permanent drunk or two. She sat down at the bar in the most lighted space available in order to escape what she knew was the standard cliché of badly lit taverns. Within a few minutes, she started getting hit on and could only hope that the annoying person was actually her contact. After some more waiting and weathering the annoyance, she demanded, "Do I know you?"

The irksome man replied, "Maybe, Jade. Damn. I never thought you would be my contact." He ordered two drinks. "Anyway, what brings you to these parts?"

Mara rolled her eyes. "What do you think, idiot? I'm here because you're a turncoat."

The other laughed. "My God, Mara. It's only been a year and a half, and you've already forgotten me? Geez. If this is how much you don't remember me, then I guess you really have gone native and joined the Empire. That makes my mission a lot harder."

The answer as to why this person was being so informal with her suddenly hit Mara. "Katarn, if you wish to live, never think that I joined that stupid group because I wanted to."

Kyle grinned. "I thought as much. Actually, everyone else thinks as much too. Oh, and nice job with Han. He didn't say a thing, and everyone else is equally clueless." He paused. "Were you really supposed to have killed Luke? It doesn't really seem the Emperor's style. As far as I knew, he hated GMT's guts."

Mara took a drink from whatever Kyle had ordered for them. She hoped it wasn't alcoholic; bad things happened when she drank, specifically when people were rankling her. "Oh, he did. That was only if Luke wouldn't join the Empire, which we know he wouldn't. I was under special orders from our friendly, neighborhood Dark Lord of the Sith."

Kyle shot her a strange look. "Who? Wait---you actually trust one of the Dark Lords? What---why would he not want Luke dead? ...Is he smarter than Palpatine?"

Mara laughed: she was imagining what Kyle would say if she told him that Vader was Anakin. "If you're looking for someone who you could compare him with, let's just say that he's like an evil, angsty, and constantly angry Anakin Skywalker who doesn't suffer fools." She paused. "How's the base-relocation process doing?" Kyle, who had been drinking, spat out his drink. "What?" Mara demanded. "I'm part of the Imperial elite; of course I'd know about the current state of the Rebellion. That, and said Dark Lord told me about what is going to happen in the near future. And speaking of that, do you know where everyone in Rogue Squadron is? Has anyone not shown up to the rendez-vous point?"

Kyle stared at her. "How do I know that you aren't going to turn around and tell the boss Imps about their location?" he demanded. "Besides, I'm only a commando; why would I know about that information, huh, Mara? Seriously!"

Mara shook her head. "You really don't believe in me anymore, do you? Fine. I'll tell you all some information in exchange for the answer to the question I just asked. Our base is on Mustafar." Kyle winced, probably realizing that someone had been right about the base and that he owed said person money. Mara continued, "Furthermore, the 'leaders' of my side's little shindig are the Dark Lords of the Sith, Darth Maul, Darth Tyrannus (the Dark Lord formerly known as Count Dooku), and Darth He-who-shall-remain-nameless. Dark Jedi Ventress hangs around with them, too, and the base rejoices when any of them get ordered off of Mustafar. Or when Sir Coughs-A-Lot joins the fleet. Oh, and I suggest you have the High Command try to convince Grand Admiral Red-eyes to join you; he's a damn good strategist, and he'll spell doom for you if he stays with the Empire."

"You aren't going to tell me this Admiral's name?" Kyle asked, and received a shake of the head in return. "Fine. That other information's good enough. Especially about the Dark Lords and the formerly deceased Grieves. Wouldn't have expected that guy to show back up," Kyle mused. "On to business, though. A deal's a deal. Luke and the others are on a planet out in the middle of nowhere talking to the Jedi Council about stuff."

Mara was a little disheartened. So everything was going as Vader had told her. Was he planning on repeating everything, though? If so... She had to warn the others. "Good. Do you think they're still there?" Kyle shrugged. Mara sighed in frustration. "Fine. Well, try and get a message out to the Rogues that they are under no circumstances to let Luke go anywhere alone, and by that, I mean they cannot let him go off to some random planet while they head back to the rendez-vous. Also, try and tell Solo and the Princess that they should call for help from the Rebellion instead of heading off to some random planet."

Kyle frowned. "I can't do that, Mara. The Falcon's going off to some planet called Bespin to get repaired from the battle at Hoth, and Leia explicitly told the High Command not to send anyone after them lest the Falcon be captured. The Rogues are under a comm silence with the fleet to prevent the absolute minimum leaking of information."

Mara was silent for a few moments. "Then they're going to have to face the Dark Lord alone---again. Why is he so damn insistent on repeating the events of the other reality here?" Mara demanded to no one in particular. She looked toward the door. "Kyle, you and that Jan girl have to get out of here soon. My backup's coming in about five minutes."

Kyle looked toward the door, too. "Maybe. You do know you're in a completely Rebel-friendly tavern, right? I was supposed to have killed whomever the Empire sent, but since you're obviously Rebel-friendly, I've decided to ignore those orders."

Mara shook her head. "You're insane, Katarn. I should have just stayed away from you and the Corellian and Skywalker. I would be a lot better off if I had..." she trailed off and left the bar, leaving a very confused Jedi apprentice to think about what his friend had said.

Leia was worried. No, she corrected herself, I am righteously scared of what will happen if Han didn't get the hyperdrive working. They had already finished doing repairs inside the asteroid before she had figured out there was something odd about the cave they were in. Han had realized that they were inside one of the semi-mythical space worms, and they had hightailed it out of there just in time. Currently, they were trying to make it out into space where they could try to make the jump to hyperspace. Han had already worked out a place they could get to without the hyperdrive, but they were planning on leaving that way, regardless. Apparently one of Han's friends owned a mining operation there. Leia didn't care at the moment. She just wanted to get away from the Dark Lord she knew was nearby. She had felt the man's dark presence back on the surface of Hoth when she and Han had almost been captured, and what had truly been frightening about the experience was how familiar that presence had been. Leia shook her head to get rid of those thoughts, and Han entered the room. He grinned. "Well, sweetheart, it looks like we're going to be able to manage a hyperspace jump from here to somewhere near Bespin."

Leia smiled. "Then we're safe from the Imperials at least for a little while," she added. "You really can trust this friend of yours, right? He's not going to turn us over to the---"

"No, Your Highness. Lando wouldn't do that unless... Well, let's just say that he'd have to be in dire straights not to help us, Leia," Han replied. "We should actually be more worried about the Empire hiring bounty hunters to chase after us."

Leia nodded, knowing Han was right, and Chewie came in. He took the co-pilot's seat, and Han and Chewie started the path out of the asteroid field. About halfway out, TIEs started to find the Falcon, and they were chased right into a path which intersected with the path of the Star Destroyer Avenger. Chewie expressed his beliefs that they would barely be able to make it away from the Star Destroyer, if at all.

"Don't be so pessimistic, Chewie," Han retorted. "We're going to get away from that thing just fine, and if not... You remember that stunt we pulled a few years back, right?"

Chewie turned to look at Han and commented about how they had almost been killed the last time Han had tried to latch onto the back of a Star Destroyer's control tower.

They neared the outside of the asteroid system and the Star Destroyer, and the Falcon was hailed by the Avenger, telling them that if they surrendered now, they wouldn't have to damage the ship. Han and Chewie exchanged a glance, and Chewie told him that he thought the Imperials had some idiots running their comm systems. Once they were actually in clear space, the Falcon had to do some fancy flying in order to avoid the Avenger and its complement of TIEs. There was a tense few minutes on the Falcon before the old freighter decided that maybe it would be a good idea for it to run like there was no tomorrow and jump into hyperspace. For now, the Falcon had avoided any Imperial entanglements of the vaporizing kind and was well on its way to Bespin, albeit being followed by the Slave I.

Darth Vader was not particularly angry today. Everything was going according to plan or, he reconsidered, to the past. Solo and the Princess would be running away to the planet Bespin, and Needa, like before, had not been able to catch them. This time, however, the man had had a feasible explanation: they had escaped into hyperspace once the ship had cleared the asteroid field. Shouldn't that ship (and I use the term lightly) have not been able to even enter hyperspace? he thought. It only made sense. The point was, Vader had been lenient with Needa because he already knew what was going to happen and therefore didn't need to be angry at the man for losing the ship. Besides, Fett would no doubt find the annoying smuggler. Apparently there was some sort of vendetta which Fett felt was between him and Solo and Calrissian. Vader turned around and walked away from the viewports on the bridge of the Executor to go back to his chambers when Piett came over. "My lord," the admiral started. "The Supre---the Emperor demands to speak with you immediately. He did not say why, just that it was very urgent."

"Thank you, Admiral," Vader said before stomping off to receive the call. He could only wonder what this call would be about. He wasn't sure how he would respond if the topic of discussion was the same as what it had been. Vader stepped into the comm room and kneeled in front of the Emperor. Why did he have to have chosen to clone himself so that he looked as young as I had been when I turned? Vader wondered idly before saying the stock phrase, "What is thy bidding, my master?" Xizor was supposedly listening in on this conversation between him and the Emperor. From when and where was this Xizor?

"There is a great disturbance in the Force, Lord Vader. I am sure you know whose presence it would belong to, yes?" Palpatine stated. Vader didn't dare look up, but he knew the dictator was smirking. No doubt Xizor was disassembling the conversation, too.

"...Yes, my master," Vader replied hesitantly. Should he come out and say he knew who it was? Or should he keep trying to hide the truth? "I am not sure of whom you speak, though. There are a great many Jedi in this galaxy, and I cannot pick out specific presences as well as I could back in my reality, Emperor. It could be anyone, even Yoda."

The Emperor would be frowning now. Maybe he didn't know that Vader knew? "Hm, it is strange that you are unsure. Regardless, we have a new enemy: the son of Skywalker is more dangerous to us than his father is."

Dammit. The old fool thinks Luke's more dangerous than I or my alter-ego is, which I will admit is true in a way. "Skywalker?" Vader asked incredulously, hiding his knowledge. "He's just a boy. How could one that young even pose a threat? The elder Skywalker and the Council are infinitely more of a threat to us and the Empire, my master."

"No, Lord Vader. The Force is very strong in the boy; he must be destroyed."

So Vader was to play this game again. It would be easy enough to fool the Emperor, but would Xizor be able to buy it? Probably. The rest of the Dark Lords would be infuriated when they learned of what Vader was about to propose. "My master," Vader ventured, "what it he could be turned? He would undoubtedly be a powerful ally."

The Emperor would be thinking about the proposition, and he replied wistfully, "Yes. You are correct, Lord Vader. He would be a great asset. Can it be done?"

Vader smiled darkly. "He will join us," he replied before tacking on the "or die, my master," to placate the Emperor, who then started laughing maniacally before cutting the transmission. Vader left the room, and while walking back to the bridge he idly wondered why Obi-Wan or any of the Council had ever let him near that psychopathic politician.

On Bespin, Lando Calrissian was counting the profits from the past month's tibanna gas sales and trying to work out how to distribute the money to the general populace of Cloud City when a certain bounty hunter decided to come calling. Lando was informed of this development via Lobot, and he decided to greet the unwelcome guest at the landing platform personally. The less contact Cloud City had with Boba Fett, the better. Hell, the less contact Lando had with Fett, the better. When Lando had first met Han, they had made a rather bad impression on the infamous bounty hunter, and Fett still wanted revenge. Lando keyed the code in to open the door to the landing platform. "Fett."

The bounty hunter in green beat-up Mandalorian armor was standing right at the door. "Calrissian." He stepped inside the door. "I'm not here to settle my quarrel with you this time. In fact, I'm actually here to settle my quarrel with Solo, but it's a job. He's coming here to have repairs made to the Millennium Falcon. My employers would be most displeased if you were to harbor the ship, which I might add has members of the Rebellion aboard. I'm sure you know what would happen if the Empire were to learn that you harbored fugitives from the law, so you are going to fully cooperate, correct? And don't think about having me arrested (not that you could): I already informed the Empire."

Lando glared at Fett. He was backed into a corner. Yes, Lando had a duty to Han as his friend to help him, but he was the Baron-Administrator of Cloud City first and foremost. The safety of the citizens unfortunately trumped his duty to Han. If it hadn't, then Fett would be on his way to becoming a newly manufactured carbonite desk. "Fine, Fett. Tell your employers that I'll detain Han and the Falcon. Who are they anyway?"

If Fett's helmet had been transparent, Lando would have known that Fett was smirking. "I'm sure you're familiar with the name Darth Vader?"

Lando's eyes widened in shock. "Vader's the Imperial military's dreaded Supreme Commander---the man who took over the job for Warender. Why is he interested in Han!"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss that information, Calrissian. You should better ready this installation for the Imperials. I've heard that Vader has a nasty temper," Fett replied nonchalantly. "Oh, and I'd have your technicians ready the carbon freezing chamber for a human to be frozen. Vader stipulated that point when he hired me."

Lando resumed glaring at Fett as the bounty hunter outlined everything that Lando was supposed to do in preparation for the Imperial's imminent arrival. As soon as he could, he left the bounty hunter to his own devices and made some plans of his own. He would still have the Cloud City mechanics look at the Falcon and fix whatever was wrong. If he knew that ship, and Lando knew it pretty well, whatever had gone wrong had been the result of someone, most likely Han or Chewie, making an offhand comment about how whatever component was going to break next while they were fixing another problem. After the Imperials got whatever they wanted, then Lando would hightail it out of there with Han and Chewie. It didn't sound like the Imperials wanted the Falcon and it's passengers. It sounded like Han and all else on the ship were only the means to acquire an end.

Lando wondered what end the Imperials were trying to get to while he set out to follow the orders that the Imperials had given Fett to give to him. He had only needed to wait for a day or two for the Imperials to actually make their appearance. Too soon after that, Lando received a message that the Millennium Falcon had landed on Bespin, and he again made his way to another landing platform. If only Han had arrived a few days sooner! Then this whole mess could have been avoided. Lando walked out to greet his old friend which he was about to betray. The Falcon landed as smoothly as it normally did, and the landing ramp dropped soon afterwards. The first person off the ramp was Chewie, who exclaimed something to the effect of "Land!" and he was shortly followed by Han, who rolled his eyes at Chewie's theatrics, and a girl who looked oddly like the Senator-Princess of Alderaan. Lando hoped it wasn't her; if she was, then the young Rebel would be in for it for sure.

Lando put on a smile. Maybe he could warn Han of the danger? "Why, you slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler," Lando greeted his friend.

Han obviously had not expected that to be the greeting he was going to receive. "No hard feelings?" Han asked, unsure if he had been forgiven for a certain escapade on Ylesia a few years before, although it seemed like Lando had forgiven him at the time.

Lando grinned. "Are you kidding?" He shook his head. "Of course not. Remember? I told you back then that we all believed that you didn't know about the betrayal. And that certain card game is ancient history. So, how've you been doing? I heard from some old
friends you were going to visit Nar Shaddaa soon. Something keep you away?" he asked.

Han shrugged, obviously relieved that Lando didn't harbor any hard feelings, and replied, "Chewie and I got held up for various reasons. And as to why we're here..." Han trailed off, and Chewie concluded the statement by informing Lando that the hyperdrive was on the fritz again and that the system therefore needed fixing.

"I figured as much," Lando admitted before addressing Leia. "Forgive my manners. I'm Lando Calrissian, Baron-Administrator of Cloud City. Welcome to Bespin, Miss...?"

"Leia. Just Leia," she replied civilly. That solved that case, anyway. Han's friend did happen to be the Princess of Alderaan, the Senator who was said to be the next Senator Amidala (figuratively speaking). What the sludge papers said about both Senators was part of what Lando was worried about: those reporters were pretty sure that the Princess' real father happened to be certain unstable Jedi Master. No one wanted to cross that guy.

"Nice to meet you, Leia," Lando said, acting a more than a little suavely just to annoy Han, and turned back to Han. "I'll get my mechanics working on it as soon as possible." Lando searched for an excuse to stall the meeting with the Imperials. "In the meantime, why don't I give you a tour of Cloud City? It's the least I can do."

"You always were a gentleman, Lando," Han replied, grinning. "Lead the way." Lando smiled back and proceeded to give the group a tour of Cloud City while the mechanics really were working on the Falcon. The Princess seemed really amazed with the city, and even Han had to admit he was impressed. Few cities anymore were anymore were as clean as Cloud City; some of the worst cities were the underworld of Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa in general. When Lando received the information that the Falcon had been fixed with a message from the Imperials attached, he knew he had run out of time. Lando suggested maybe taking a break for lunch, and the group headed to the room Lando knew Vader and Fett were waiting in. About halfway there, Lando decided to try and tell Han what was going on. "Hey, Han, remember that one time Tharen pulled that trick on us and some of our other friends?" Lando said, hoping Han wouldn't blow the cover.

Han looked at him quizzically. "Yes. I remember," he replied unsurely, making up his mind to go along with what Lando was talking about. "What about it, Lando?"

Lando took a deep breath, hoping Han would understand. "Remember how you were coerced into taking that job or else the Falcon would be sold off to Jabba's rival? And how we were forced into turn in Xaverri, who had been fighting against Jabba's rival?"

Han seemed to understand what Lando was trying to say and continued to play along it. "Right. We had been shipping all that stuff for the Republic, and we couldn't let the people who needed the equipment down. Plus we had that nasty bounty hunter after us. Am I wrong about that? I seem to remember Jabba's rival putting a huge bounty on me."

Lando nodded. "Yeah. It was sky-high, but none of us were going to get a cent of the bounty had we turned you in, not that we ever wanted to. But, as you may remember, necessity called for it. We got you out of that sticky situation in the end, though."

Han smiled halfheartedly, obviously understanding and accepting what Lando had said. Chewie looked at the two of them and asked when that had happened, before he essayed that the Empire had come to Cloud City before them and that Lando had no choice but to turn them in because of the City. They all knew of the Empire's reputation, and Chewie was grateful that Lando had explained himself and had tried to assure them that he would do everything he could to help them. Chewie also asked as to the Empire's motive.

Lando shrugged. "I didn't know what Jabba's rival's motive was, Chewie. Still don't, as a matter of fact. I think it had something to do with luring one of the others to us, though."

"Anyone I know, Han?" Leia piped in a little angrily. So the Princess had understood the conversation, too, and she was not very happy about it. "Or is this just another one of your old friends who happened to go into debt with 'Jabba's rival?'"

"I don't know. I think it had to do with someone else who worked for Jabba," Han replied truthfully to the point that he thought it was someone who was part of the Rebellion. A thought suddenly struck him as they neared the door to the lunch room. "Actually, maybe it was that hotshot pilot I told you about that Jabba's rival was so intent on acquiring."

Leia stared openmouthed at Han, knowing immediately whom he had been referring to. Lando was pretty sure that whomever they were talking about was someone that the Empire apparently wanted very badly. And Vader was using the others to get that guy. After glancing at Han, Lando opened the door to the room. Han, Leia, and Chewie, however, were genuinely surprised at Vader's presence. Han even took a few shots at the man with his blaster, but the Dark Lord deflected all of the blaster bolts. Fett was standing a little ways behind the Dark Lord, looking menacing. Lando then said to Han apologetically, "I'm sorry, friend. They got here before you did." Han grimaced in return, and Leia glared.

Vader, who had been standing at his seat patiently like he had rehearsed the scene, then took the time to say, "We would be honored if you joined us."

Luke had not been sleeping well for the past few days, and it was not just because Rogue Squadron had decided to stay on Dagobah for a while. He had been having nightmares recently, mostly about the city in the clouds he had seen some time in the past. the only difference between those visions and the ones he had been having was that what he was now seeing really was happening. Luke didn't know how he knew; he just did. The nightmares were violent, and the worst part was that he sometimes became ill himself after waking up. This was one of those times.

As not to wake anyone around him up, Luke carefully stood up and walked a bit off. This time he had seen Leia going through an Imperial interrogation again, and the vision had made him wonder as to how much more of the torture not only they, but he too, could take. Usually, the cool night air would be enough to return him to good health, but that was apparently not to be the case tonight. A wave of pain shot through him, and he braced himself against a nearby tree. It happened again, and Luke collapsed onto the ground, unable to stand back up. So they're not visions, are they? he realized as the generalized pain started to become more intense. Leia's being interrogated right now, but why am I feeling it? Luke tried to focus on what the solution to that question could be when the pain got to a point that he doubled over and vomited. If he was feeling like that, then who knew what Leia was feeling like. I can't let the Empire do this to her... or Han or Chewie, he added as an afterthought, and soon as he had decided that, Luke sensed one of the Jedi coming.

Luke groaned. That was great. No sooner had he decided that he had to go save his friends from a Dark Lord of the Sith that said person's opposite number had to come and try to talk him out of it. He tried to sense who was coming and immediately regretted doing so: Master Skywalker was apparently the one who had been sent. Why couldn't it have been Obi-Wan? Luke whined to himself. I better say something. He'll think that there's something seriously wrong if I don't speak first. When the Jedi Master was within a few yards, Luke said, "Master Skywalker, I'm fine. I just had a nightmare," which was more than Luke had intended to reveal to the theoretically esteemed member of the Jedi Council.

Even in the dark, Luke knew Anakin was frowning and didn't believe him. "No, you're not fine," Anakin replied as he closed the space between them. He went on to say, "You're radiating pain; anyone around here can feel it. Now, Luke, please tell me what's wrong."

"It---I---" Luke began, intending to concoct a story about how he had been wounded at Hoth or something like that, but he felt another sharp pain, shuddered, and decided that maybe it would be a better idea to tell the truth. "Master Skywalker, I---I wasn't lying when I said that I had a nightmare, but it---in it, I saw Han and Leia being tortured by the Imperials... I've been having these dreams for the past few days, and I can occasionally feel their pain." Shivering, he exclaimed, "I have to go save them! They will die if I don't!"

Anakin was dead serious by this point. "Luke, you cannot just leave to go wherever your friends are all by yourself." He paused, obviously tense about something Luke could not completely identify, but it felt like concern. "Do you know where they are, and who's holding them?" the Jedi Master finally asked. "And don't lie about it; I can tell."

Well, it was a sunk cause anyway, Luke reminded himself and answered the question, "Han and Leia are on a planet I think is called Bespin, on a city in the clouds. One of the Sith Lords is keeping them there. Master Skywalker, I know this sounds conceited, but I think he's trying to lure me there. I don't know why, but that's the impression I get."

Anakin was silent for a few moments. "Luke, you feel pain when either one of your friends are tortured, right?" he asked, and Luke nodded in assent. "I was just wondering, which of the two is it more painful with? Your friend Solo or," Anakin paused for the briefest of moments like he was wondering what to say before finishing, "the Princess of Alderaan?"

Luke, still a little dazed, wondered why the Jedi Master would want to know that, but he replied to the question regardless. "I hadn't really thought about it before now, but it's a lot worse with Leia. I wake up when the Imperials are interrogating her, the pain is so bad."

Anakin grimaced and murmured, "That makes sense," causing Luke to wonder what was making sense. From his perspective, none of this made sense. Why did the Sith want to catch him? Why wouldn't Anakin let him try to save Han and Leia? Luke's thoughts were interrupted by Anakin looking back towards where everyone else was and saying, "Look, Luke, if you really want to go, I won't stop you. Just swear to me you won't do anything stupid like trying to fight the Dark Lord. Obi-Wan and I won't be able to help you this time."

Luke nodded and was about to reply when a different voice spoke up. "We won't be able to help him with what?" Obi-Wan demanded of Anakin, who was looking rather sheepish at the moment. "Don't tell me you were about to let him go off to Bespin!"

"Well, uh, I, um... yeah?" Anakin replied with the utmost amount of articulation possible. Now Luke was really confused. First Obi-Wan had no clue what Luke and Anakin had been talking about, and then he knew exactly what was going on. Brilliant! Now I'm getting a headache on top of everything else! Luke complained before realizing that he actually felt a little better now. In fact, he had started feeling better when Anakin had entered the scene. Maybe the Jedi Master had been suppressing his pain through the Force?

After Anakin's very informative comment, Obi-Wan and he started a debate in full force, and a few minutes of Anakin and Obi-Wan debating about whether they should let Luke leave (a debate in which Luke had no say) passed, and Anakin became sufficiently distracted as to forget that he had in fact been suppressing Luke and Leia's link in the Force to keep the effects that Leia was having due to the torture from affecting Luke as well. Brain scientist that Anakin was, he had still had a very easy time figuring out what was happening. Because of Anakin's lapse in memory and concentration, Luke's condition worsened again, and he steadily began to feel worse than he had before. That particular development went unnoticed by the two arguing Jedi Masters for at least a quarter of an hour before Luke, then very disoriented, told them, "Masters? I don't feel so good..." and passed out.

Both Anakin and Obi-Wan noticed that immediately, and Anakin knelt down and checked to see that Luke was all right, aside from the transferred ailments. "He has a fever," Anakin noted. He sighed then conceded the argument to Obi-Wan. "Fine. Maybe we should keep Luke here for a while, but we can't just leave Leia (and Solo) in the custody of Vader! And you know that there's a small chance that Luke's condition will only get worse."

Obi-Wan agreed, "You are right, too, but we cannot let him leave now." He paused while Anakin picked Luke up, and they started to walk back towards camp. "Anakin, you remember what was happened in the other reality. Do you really want Luke to go through that here, too? But what if things do go differently, and instead of events happening to advance our felicity, Luke falls to the Dark Side? Then you will probably have to kill him, or Leia will have to be trained to kill him, and I know you don't want that."

"That will not happen," Anakin replied adamantly. "Obi-Wan, you know that would not happen. Luke would never do that; he would die before he turned to the Dark Side!"

"That's part of my point, Anakin," Obi-Wan replied patiently. "How do we know that your other self would let him live this time? It is almost like he's been fixing everything which he did wrong in the other reality. Who knows if he would go as far to kill---"

Anakin shook his head and cut Obi-Wan off. "No. He would never do that, and you need to stop playing devil's advocate, Obi-Wan. I know you are on the verge of allowing him to leave, too! You're just starting to run out of material to try to find a reason to keep Luke here or make sure Rogue Squadron in its entirety goes back to the fleet. Furthermore, when and who do you suggest that we let go off and try to save Leia and Solo, if not Luke? If he gets better, and we've already sent a rescue mission, Luke will still insist that he leaves to assist that team. Basically, I don't want him to go, but I know I won't be able to stop him, so I just decided to give in and let him leave. When do you think we should let him leave?"

"Once he is sufficiently well," Obi-Wan admitted, "and preferably without the rest of the Council knowing. You know how ballistic Yoda and Mace will be when they find out."

"Yes," Anakin agreed as they reached camp where he set Luke down on his cot. After Anakin and Obi-Wan walked a ways off, Anakin glanced back at where Luke was lying and smiled wanly. "I just hope we're doing the right thing by letting him leave."

Obi-Wan adopted a similar expression and replied, "Me, too, Anakin. Me, too..."

Everything was going to plan, and Vader was quite enthused. Prolonged torture of the Princess of Alderaan had proven to be a quicker way to draw Luke to Bespin than a balance between Solo and Organa had in the past; he could sense the boy's urgency and want to save his friends. However, since Luke would be coming sooner, Solo had to be frozen in carbonite sooner. Vader momentarily thought about how Calrissian had attempted to explain himself to Solo, the Wookie, and the Princess this time. The Baron-Administrator had actually made a good argument, but the Princess had still been angry as she could be at the man. Solo was a little disappointed, but understood Calrissian's reasons, and the Wookie was okay with it all unless something bad happened to Solo, which it would.

Vader decided to comm Piett and inform him that if any X-wings entered the system that they were to be allowed to land on Bespin. He then commed Calrissian to inform the gambler that the carbon-freezing chamber was to be made ready for human use. Of course, Calrissian was vexed by Vader's new way to torture Solo and tried to talk him out of it. "Try" was the operative word; Vader threatened to alter the arrangement more than it already had been changed, and Calrissian fell silent. Vader then started to make his way to the chamber. When he arrived, he decided to watch the mechanics modify everything. It took at least twice as long for Calrissian to bring Solo, the Wookie, and the Princess to the carbon freezing chamber than in the other reality. What is with everyone here? It's like they don't understand the importance of expediency! Vader mentally grumbled.

Fett was standing off to the side and in the shadows again. Calrissian was very angry at Vader because of how he was having to treat his friends. The Princess was glaring at Vader, and Vader started to wonder why he still deserved the same level of animosity from her as her counterpart which thought he was pure evil. Was it just because of this? How strange... Vader thought. The Wookie was standing next to Solo, also rather peeved at the Imperials is general. Solo, however, looked grim and apprehensive. Did he know of what Vader was planning? A realization struck Vader. Jade just can't keep her mouth shut, can she? Dear Force, Palpatine should have just left her with the Rebels and the Jedi. She would have done less damage that way. "Put Solo in the carbon freeze," Vader ordered.

Fett sneaked over. "What if he doesn't survive?" the ever-frugal bounty hunter demanded. "He's worth a lot of money to me; I have a reputation to keep."

Vader rolled his eyes and replied in his monotone, "The Empire will compensate you for your loss." On that note, the Princess started to protest, and the Wookie flipped out. Thankfully, Solo started to calm the enraged Wookie down before Vader had to order any of the harebrained stormtroopers into the fray.

"Chewie!" Solo exclaimed. "Save your strength for another day! You won't accomplish anything here and now. You have to protect the Princess for me, got it?"

Princess Leia was very distraught, and the scene that Vader had seen before replayed itself. "Han!" she cried out, and Solo turned around. They then kissed, and Vader felt like pushing Solo off a cliff and sending the girl to her room, of which the latter thought was odd. Nevertheless, when the two ceased to kiss, the Princess (again) exclaimed, "I love you!" to the annoying rapscallion of a smuggler (Where did that come from?).

Solo smiled enigmatically and replied, "I know," before Vader finally decided that he would be able to take no more of the romantic dialogue and motioned for the Ugnaughts to put Solo in the carbon freezing contraption. As Solo was being carbon frozen and the Princess was crying, Vader reflected on certain things. Those two are almost as bad as that Senator and Jedi who shall remain anonymous! Actually, Vader amended, Padmé and I were worse. Much worse. He snapped out of his reverie when Solo's carbonite-encased form was examined by Calrissian, who reported that Solo was in perfect hibernation. Vader suddenly realized that he really hadn't had to test the machine since he already knew that it would work. Oh, well. At least Solo would be out of commission for a while. Darth turned to Fett. "You can take your reward now, bounty hunter." Vader turned toward the technicians and ordered, "Reset the chamber for Skywalker," before starting to turn and leave.

"My lord!" an aide reported. "An X-wing just landed; we are almost certain that it is Skywalker. Should we intercept him or just let him find you?"

Vader turned. That was a strange question to ask. Oh, well. He should answer it anyway and maybe promote the aide as well. Captain of the Executor sounds proper. "Do not intercept him. See to it that he finds his way here, Aide...?" The aide then filled in the pause with his name, and Vader made a note of the young man's name before turning to face Calrissian. "Take the Princess and the Wookie to my ship."

"You said that they could stay here under my supervision!" Calrissian protested.

"I'm altering the bargain. Pray I don't alter it any further," Vader retorted and waited for the entire group to leave. The aide was the last one to leave, pausing only to look at the carbon-freezing machine before exiting the room. Vader ignored the anomaly in space-time and walked over to his predetermined spot to wait.

Everything felt wrong. It was almost as if there was a presence that was making Luke feel lightheaded. Then there was the huge maw of darkness somewhere in the bowels of the city, but that was less intriguing. He knew that one of the Dark Lords was here. All he had to do was avoid him. Luke continued to wander through the passages with Artoo following him. He thought it amazing that Master Skywalker had actually let him borrow the droid. Generally, the Jedi Master was paranoid about that sort of thing. Regardless, there they were. Luke turned around the bend in the corridor and the Force sent him a warning, so he hit to the deck immediately, barely dodging a blast from none other than Boba Fett. Luke scrambled back around the corridor. He didn't need to incur the wrath of the best bounty hunter in the galaxy in addition to all of the Empire. Unsure of whether Fett was coming after him anyway, Luke glanced around the corner and saw that Fett was gone.

Relieved, Luke did an about turn and went back the way he came until he reached the hallway that he had not gone down. Luke followed the pathway to an antechamber, and in the hallway that was tangent to the opposite side of the antechamber was a group of Imperials leading Chewie and Leia somewhere. There was someone else who had a cape, and Luke decided that that person was most likely the person in charge of the city. Time to save Leia. Luke had still not been noticed by the troops, and he drew his blaster. "Leia!" he shouted. "Get down!" He fired a few shots at the Imperials and hit a few before they started to return fire. One of the Imperials was dragging a struggling Leia off.

"Luke! Don't!" she exclaimed, clinging to the side of the wall. "It's a trap!" After almost being dragged out of sight, Leia exclaimed "It's a trap!" again before she and the Imperials disappeared. Luke ran after her, but to no avail. They group had already turned the corner in the hallway and he had no clue which way they had gone; the dampening feeling in the Force was a lot stronger. Luke turned around and ran straight into an Imperial officer, causing both of them to fall over. The officer regained his senses before Luke and confiscated the blaster Luke had with him. Luckily, Artoo seemed to have disappeared. Hopefully, he had gone after Leia. The Imperial leveled the blaster at Luke. He seemed to be a little disoriented as well. "What are you doing here?" the Imperial demanded, surprised.

"Trying to save my friends, what does it look like!" Luke shouted back. "Force, are all of you thick or something? I could swear that all you are worse shots than Teneniel!"

A strange look crossed the Imperial's face for a millisecond before he shook his head and handed the weapon back over to Luke. "Get out of here as fast as you can. Trust me, you don't want to fight Vader. He's deadly without a weapon and more deadly with one."

Luke stared warily at the officer. Why was an Imperial helping him, a Rebel? It made no sense. "What do you mean? Why should I leave? I need to save my friends!"

"They can save themselves, Skywalker," the officer replied softly, deciding that it was useless to even try to talk him out of facing Vader. "You're the one that will need saving," he warned before walking off after the rest of the Imperials. Luke didn't even bother to heed the officer's advice. In fact, he decided to do the exact opposite. The officer had told him that it was impossible to live after an encounter with Vader, so he had to prove the man wrong. Besides, Vader had crossed the line when he had used Luke's friends as bait.

Luke walked the opposite direction that the officer took toward the room that the officer had come from. When Luke stepped inside the room, the door slammed down behind him, automatically locking. Luke took a deep breath, knowing that there was no turning back. The room he was in was almost pitch black, and the only illumination was from the lights of various machines and a circular hole in the ceiling. Luke stepped toward the light and onto a part of the floor which was different than the others. Before he could register what it was, that part of the floor started to move upward and took Luke to the upper level of the room. There was some sort of gas floating around, making the room look like it was filled with fog. Luke looked around and noticed that his connection with the Force was back to normal before noticing that he felt a huge dark presence behind him and off to the side of the room. He took a deep breath and unhooked his lightsaber before walking over to find and face the fearsome Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.

Vader stood at the top of the staircase with lightsaber drawn, waiting for him, and Luke started to think that maybe this was a bad idea. That officer had seemed sincere, after all, but as he had thought seconds before, there was no turning back. Luke started to climb the stairs, and Vader said, "The Force may be with you, Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet." The words sent a chill coursing up Luke's spine, but he ignored it and focused on the matter at hand. At the top of the stairs, Luke drew his lightsaber and ignited it.

The Dark Lord was just waiting for him to attack, and Luke knew that defense was sometimes the best offense. This was one of those times. However, they were just staring at each other, and Vader was not going to be making the first move, and Luke was starting to become impatient, so he attacked. Vader easily blocked the attack, and Luke kept striking at the Sith, but the Dark Lord met every single blow. It was starting to become frustrating.

"You have learned more than I had anticipated, young Skywalker," Vader said conversationally while parrying yet another of Luke's attacks and finally going offensive.

"You'll find I'm full of surprises," Luke replied automatically as he was trying to fend off the sudden change of strategy by Vader. He was not sure how much more fighting he would be able to take. Vader was very powerful both physically and in the Force. As Vader's onslaught continued, Luke noticed that he was being driven towards the stairs and made a note to himself. However, he forgot a few seconds later and fell down the stairs, inadvertently dropping his lightsaber, while Vader calmly walked down. The Dark Lord advanced, and Luke tried to back away with little success. Then the Sith spoke again. "Your future is with the Empire and the Dark Side, Skywalker. There is no escaping your fate."

Luke had stood up and was backing up when Vader suddenly lunged at him. Luke jumped backwards to avoid it, but where there should have been floor was some sort of hole in the ground. As he tried to figure out what was going on, he heard Vader say "All too easy," and decided that maybe it was not the best idea to stay down in the hole, so Luke jumped up just as the machine (Whatever's down there, he thought) turned on and started spewing a fog-like gas. Vader noticed immediately, and the two combatants resumed the fight as soon as Luke retrieved his lightsaber and jumped back down to the platform.

The battle began again in full force. Luke would attack, Vader would parry and counterattack, Luke would then block the counterattack, and the whole situation would repeat. After a good number of exchanged blows in a short amount of time, Luke finally started to push Vader back, and Vader started to try and goad Luke into anger. Luke responded by attacking more furiously than he had before, actually listening to the Dark Lord. He didn't know why, but there was some force trying to keep him on a certain path. The Force definitely was not behind the situation; it was something less concrete, more abstract. Sort of like... "Fate," he murmured. But why would fate want him to fight some Dark Lord and say certain things? Everything started to seem like a bad dream he could not wake from.

Vader lost his balance and fell down to the lower levels of the room. Relieved for a break in the duel, Luke stayed on the higher level for a few moments to catch his breath. He glanced back toward the lift which had brought him into this room and debated with himself whether he should try to flee or stay and fight. Luke looked down into the dark lower levels where he knew Vader was waiting. The Sith would not have allowed the door to remain unlocked if he had laid this trap for Luke. The Empire wanted him, and Luke did not want to know why, but he descended the stairs regardless.

After wandering around the halls looking for Vader with ever door he passed through closing instantly behind him, Luke reached a dark room which had a window overlooking the core of the city. There, he heard Vader's incessant heavy breathing and turned to face the Sith. They circled, and Vader suddenly stopped when Luke had his back to the window. Luke sensed something strange was going on, and his feeling proved to be correct when Vader started throwing miscellaneous pieces of machinery at him. Luke was able to block most of them with his lightsaber and deflect a few more with the Force, but some still got through and hit him. Normally, that would not have been a problem, but the speed at which the heavy metal was hitting him made the machinery have quite a bit of momentum. Luke stole a glance at the window, afraid that one of the items would break the glass, and was hit with another large miscellaneous apparatus which ricocheted off of him and went through the window. Vader calmly stood his ground as the room pressure equalized, but Luke had been hit by a object, which had not been able to stay its ground against the winds, and was knocked out of the room through the window.

Luckily, Luke had been able to grab hold of the guard rail of one of the gantries some distance below the room. He scrambled up onto the walkway and decided to just lay there for a minute or two before searching for Vader again. That Imperial was right, Luke admitted to himself. I shouldn't have challenged Vader... Luke stood up and walked towards the reactor which the gantry was attached to, but did not make it that far. Vader, somehow, had already made it down to the level and was advancing towards Luke. I'm so dead...

As he came closer and Luke slowly backed away, Vader declared, "You are beaten. It is useless to resist." Luke almost believed him. No, he did believe the Dark Lord. He knew he was not going to make it out of the fight unscathed. Vader took the moment Luke was using to be introspective to attack. Luke was barely able to deflect the attack, let alone counter attack, and he also knew with a fearful certainty that there was not much gantry left to retreat on. A new rush of adrenaline kicked in when there was only three meters left, and Luke actually managed to score a hit on Vader, albeit on the Sith's shoulder.

Now Vader was angry. Luke did all he could to keep the Sith's blows from landing on him, but then Vader cut through a large part of the railing. While Luke turned involuntarily turned to look at it, Vader struck once again, and Luke was barely able to parry the attack, but his arm was momentarily knocked back and almost lost grip on the lightsaber. Luke only realized that the singular moment was an opening for Vader to disarm him came a second too late, and then Luke understood where that saying could have possibly come from. He could only stare in horror at the space where his hand used to be in complete shock. The pain set in a second later, and Luke tried to get as far away from Vader as possible. He felt something against his back and realized that he was at the end of the line. "No..."

Vader stood like an ominous spectre, almost like Death itself, and he knew and could feel how hurt and afraid the young man in front of him was. Well, he had to start the speech that would in all likelihood would wreak havoc on the boy's beliefs. "There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you. Join me and we could be more powerful than the Emperor."

Luke, in almost unbearable pain, was still lucid enough to yell, "I'll never join you!"

"If you only knew the power of the Dark Side," Vader said, shaking his head. He continued, hoping that Luke did not know who his father was. All signs pointed to no, from what he knew from Jade. "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father, did he?"

Luke jumped to incorrect conclusions and stared at Vader, stunned. "You killed him."

"No. I am your father," he replied very placidly. Vader's work here was done. Now all that remained was for Luke to jump off the gantry and escape in the Falcon. It was the first good thing that had happened all day. However, Padmé was going to be furious, but he couldn't please everyone. Besides, it was the idiot Jedi's fault. Why couldn't his other self not keep this certain truth a secret? Everything was so strange here.

Luke, on the other hand, was now completely in a daze. Vader was his father? How did that happen? It's just a lie, Luke told himself. It can't be true. How could... How! "No!" he screamed. "No! It can't be true! It just can't be!" Luke exclaimed, in denial.

Vader realized it was his line. Now what had he said? Ah, yes. "Search your feelings. You know it to be true," he replied. Yes. That sounded like it was word for word.

Luke had backed up further, onto the part of the outcropping past the walkway in a vain attempt to get away. He shook his head, trying to control his emotions. "That's impossible!" he shouted at Vader. It just can't be true!

Vader extended his hand and recited the rest of his dialogue which he had said before. "Luke, join me and together we can end this destructive conflict. We can destroy the Emperor and rule the galaxy as father and son. Come with me; it is the only way."

Luke looked down towards the seemingly bottomless abyss. It looked awfully inviting at the moment. He looked back up at Vader and made his decision. "No," Luke said very plainly and let himself fall down to wherever he was going to end up.

Vader watched Luke fall from the gantry. Some things never did change. Vader turned around and walked back up to an area where he would be able to access the landing platforms. It would only be a short way from the shuttle to the Executor, but Vader suddenly wished he was back on Endor. Back there? Why? It was not home. Was it?

Leia and the others had barely escaped from Cloud City. Sure, they could have gotten to the Falcon in half of the time, but there had still been a chance to save Han. Currently, Leia was attempting to out fly the TIEs in pursuit while Lando tried to find out what was wrong with the hyperdrive. He knew the mechanics had fixed it, but the engine had been deactivated, according to Artoo. Leia was surprised that the little droid had found them, but it did make some sense. The droid had obviously come with Luke, probably at the behest of her father. Leia managed to make the Falcon avoid another TIE wing's assault and wondered whether Luke had been able to escape from Bespin, too. He can't have been--- Leia shook off the rest of the thought. Luke was fine. He had to be. He had listened to her warning and hightailed it out of there. But she knew she was just fooling herself. She knew her friend too well to seriously think that he would just turn away from that fight.

Leia sat in silence and contemplated about whether she should turn back or not. The Empire was obviously waiting for the Falcon to try and escape. The Imperials were the ones that had deactivated the hyperdrive, so it was just a matter of time for them. Leia made her decision. She was going to tell the others that they were going back, but would they listen? Yes, Chewie would turn back for Luke. The droids... maybe Threepio was better off not knowing that they were going back into the danger zone. Lando might protest, but Leia knew she could convince him, and if not Leia, then Chewie could present the case.

When Leia was about to inform the others they were turning back, she suddenly heard a voice in her head. /Leia.../ She looked around. Was she imagining things? No. She couldn't be. She knew she heard it. /Leia, help. Please.../ Leia gasped, "Luke."

Chewie growled a query as to what was going on. Lando joined them in the cockpit.

"We have to go back," Leia replied. "I know where Luke is; we have to go back."

Chewie asked where Luke was, and Leia searched her mind. Where? It felt like---Leia realized that they had communicated through the Force. That made perfect sense. Why hadn't she realized that sooner? Regardless, Leia concentrated, trying to find out exactly where her friend was. "He's at the bottom of the city," she finally replied.

"Wait a second, Princess," Lando objected. "If you haven't noticed, there are still tons of fighters following us." Chewie growled threateningly, and Lando acquiesced.

It took about two minutes to return to the city and another three for Leia to locate Luke, who she was surprised to learn was clinging to a weather vane on the bottom of the city. No wonder he sounded like he did, Leia noted to herself. She and Chewie eased the Falcon under Luke. Lando told them it was okay to leave, and Leia left the flying to Chewie when they were sufficiently out of danger and ran to that part of the ship. She skidded to a halt when she found Lando, who was making his way to the cockpit. "What's happened?"

Lando grimaced and replied, "Luke's all right for the time being, but the next stop of this ship is a medical facility." Lando was about to continue, but decided that it would be better if the Princess did not hear the news from him. "You should go see him."

Leia blanched and rushed to the room which Lando directed her to. Luke was lying on the cot in the room in a rather terrible condition. She walked over to his side and put on a brave face. One of the first things she noticed was how beat up he looked. The second was that he was missing his right hand. Leia was stunned, but what had she expected? He had faced a Dark Lord of the Sith. Neither of them said anything for a few moments. Leia spoke first. "We're going to get out of here as soon as we can, Luke. Everything's going to be all right." Luke nodded absentmindedly, and Leia did not really believe her own words. Since the conversation was not going so well, Leia decided to just tend to his wounds as best she could. When she was halfway finished cleaning up the cuts on his face, Lando and Chewie paged her over the comm. The hyperdrive still was not working. Leia turned to Luke and smiled. "I'll be right back," she promised and left to go pilot while Lando and Chewie tried to fix whatever was wrong with the ship.

Luke watched her leave and wondered how he was going to be able to talk to her now, but it was not just her. How would the Rebellion react? He was the son of one of their most dreaded enemies. How he wished that it was not true, but Luke knew that it was: his father was undoubtedly Vader. Why didn't the Jedi tell me anything? Why didn't Obi-Wan say anything? Why didn't Master Skywalker tell me anything...? Luke dismissed the thoughts. He was not going to get an answer from the Jedi, even though he probably could, but there was a remote chance that they did not know either, and that was the thought that scared Luke. What would they do to him? The Sith either wanted him on their side or dead, and the Jedi just wanted him on their side, and maybe dead, assuming they did not know about Vader. Somehow, Luke doubted that conspiracy theory as well. The Jedi knew. They had to because they acted like they knew.

Luke looked down at his hand---where his hand had been. He had to get away from everything. If Vader or anyone else in the Empire caught him, then who knows what would happen; he might have to eventually fight his friends. Luke stood up and made his way to the cockpit of the Falcon. Leia was piloting, and Luke sat down in the seat behind her. "Leia? Why aren't we in hyperspace yet?" he asked, becoming increasingly nervous.

Continuing to do evasive maneuvers, Leia explained, "Artoo found out that the hyperdrive's been deactivated, and Lando and Chewie are trying to fix it." She paused before asking, "Are you all right? I mean... Are you sure you're all right to be up?"

Luke nodded. "My arm doesn't hurt that much anymore," he lied. If anything, it hurt more, but that was only until the painkillers kicked in. Luke wished that would happen sooner than later. "And besides, I'm not that badly hurt. Well, aside from..."

"Yes," Leia said, not wishing to go over the subject again and knowing Luke certainly was not in the mood for talking about it either. Lando rushed into the cockpit at that point. Leia turned around and addressed Lando, "You and Chewie fixed the hyperdrive?"

Lando shook his head. "No, believe it or not, Artoo did. That is one smart little droid." Lando grinned and said, "Time to test the hyperdrive." Leia set in the coordinates, and Lando activated the engine, which actually worked. Leia breathed a sigh of relief. They had escaped from the Executor. She thanked the Force and all the luck in the universe. Now they were on their way to the rendez-vous with the rest of the Rebel fleet, and maybe even that much closer to saving Han from wherever. Luke would be treated, and life would return to what was near normalcy. Leia could only hope that the Empire strikes back against the Alliance would cause the Jedi to help more. Currently, however, that hope was enough.

I hope you give me comments about this chapter, like whether it was just too long and I should split the next one up or about certain plot twists or miscellaneous conspiracy theories (I love lsitening/reading to those). It's okay if you don't be I would appreciate constructive criticism. Regardless of all that, I give thanks to everyone who has favorited or watched this story, and now for my responses to the reviews:

random-idiot-v2: Yaye! A returning reader! I'm glad you loved "Fixing A Hole" and decided to read the sequel. I hope you like this as (or near as) much as FAH, and thanks so much for all of the reviews! (P.S. I agree; chapter seven is great. It was so fun to write.)

Jas-TheMaddTexan: Ah, school. How I loathe yet love it. Thanks for the review and sorry I took so long to update!

JadeAlmasy: Thanks for the reveiw!

SuperBlonde: AH! I love your long reviews! They're so fun to read! I thought the Maul going to Six Flags thing was hilarious (maybe I'll use that later...)! Vader is becoming a intreiguing character, isn't he? I couldn't help putting the Bespin scene in here. It wouldn't be ESB without it. Oh, and about when he's from: as you can probably tell from this chapter, Vader has no clue who Leia is. I'm not saying exactly when he's from, but he's not dead yet (see Endor comment). The Anakin as secretary thing just happened. I can't remember how it came about, and originally, the person whom Anakin was supposed to talk to was Vader, but it just didn't work, so I cut it out and put Thrawn there instead. Unfortunately, Palpatine still has some time left in this world/galaxy/whatever, and I'm going to blame the bickering within the Rebellion, Jedi Order, and Empire of who gets to kill him on the delay for the moment. He will die by the end of the story, I promise you that. He might even get killed twice. You never know. On the topic of Anakin and the Rogues: they have not plotted as of yet, but it will happen (possibly over how to kill Xizor for certain things having to do with Leia). Finally, Jello and revenge are probably best together. Maybe I'll have those deceased at the end of the story who are on the good side eating it and laughing at the dead bad guys. I think it would be funny. I mean, picture Vader eating Jello! And... thanks for reviewing!

Niraha Skywalker: Sorry I took so long! Thanks for thinking the chapter was awesome and for writing me the review!

Thanks again to everyone who reads this, no matter whether you have this watched or favorited or reveiw it. I'm just glad that people actually like what I write, and I thank you.